Time Passages -- the D2 Trees

So much of our stress, I've come to understand, is our inability to live in the moment, to truly savor the present. At least in my case, my monkey brain always jumps ahead -- what's coming next, and how do I strategize best? What awful news is coming with that next phone call? Sadly, it's the birthright from my beloved Dad, a world class worrier.

I always try to enjoy the milestones in life -- birthdays, anniversaries, and especially the natural events that recur.

We have a bunch of plants around the house Wifey has named the D2 trees. They grow VERY tall, if we let them, and once per year bloom with gorgeous reddish and white flower clusters. And they always bloom around D2's birthday, in early February.

Each year I await the blooms, like folks up North await the first returning birds in Spring.

Sure enough, just this morning, as I went to fetch the paper, I saw the first small flowers showing -- right on schedule. D2 turns 27 in just over three weeks. By the time of her birthday, they'll be heavily in bloom, dropping the gorgeous clusters off the trees...

We had planned to visit NYC for D2's birthday, but she and Jonathan are coming the weekend before. Jonathan, being part of a large, loving Latin Jewish family, always has family events, and there is a wedding up in Parkland on a Saturday, and a nephew's Bar Mitzvah in Sunny Isles on a Monday morning.

I made reservations for the Full Squad for Sunday night -- a place in Wynwood D1 enjoys. I plan on a few martinis that night -- the better to stay in and appreciate the moment.

2019 is starting out with travel for my family. Next weekend D2 and Jonathan are headed to Mexico City for his best friend's wedding. Two weeks after that, D1 and Joey have a family trip to Bogota. Wifey and I are driving to Key West for two nights -- a favorite band of mine, Hot Tuna, is playing there.

I've been on a quest to see the old bands before they die -- we saw the Who, and Paul McCartney, and have tickets for ELO and the Rolling Stones.

I love Key West -- and have, since I first visited in 1984.  Cynics say it's too commercialized, but I still get a wonderful sense of place there -- drinking in the Chart Room, and having breakfast at Blue Heaven with the chickens running underfoot.

We may take a sunset sail on our second night there -- the old schooner Western Union goes out each night -- that never gets old for me.

So I'm planning ahead, belying my hopes to stay in the moment. I think I'll brew another cup of coffee and go look again at the D2 trees...