You Can't Always Get What You Want (and other wise old sayings from the Rolling Stones)

I have to admit, I have the perfect life.  After commuting for years to work, making barely enough to pay for a series of "below average" ugly apartments, I now get to work out of my own home.  Well, for the most part, that is.  My husband of 8 years is a mechanic and owns his own auto repair shop.  I do the books for the business, run errands, and generally make a great shop gofer.  And most of the time I am extremely grateful for my new-found freedom from a typical office environment.

Yesterday, however, I was annoyed.  I had a busy day with tons of stuff to get done but I carefully timed things in the afternoon so I could fit in a walk.   I've been trying to walk every day, yes, obviously for the physical activity, but also for the mental benefits too.  I love people, love talking to people, love to be around people (I am, after all, half Italian so this should not come as a surprise!), but I find myself restored by being totally by myself.   Perhaps this is a result of the rest of my genetic make-up which is British, but whatever, I just find that my soul is refreshed and renewed if I can have at least half an hour everyday, by myself, away from telephones, television, computers, cellphones, etc. and out in the fresh air and sunshine, thinking solitary thoughts and dreaming solitary dreams.  So I treasure my walk time and guard it quite jealously.  And then yesterday late in the afternoon, having finished almost everything on my to-do list, right when I was about to go for my lovely sunshiny walk, my husband phoned and needed me to go pick up a part for him.

So, I was annoyed.  I picked up the old part which I would be required to match up at the parts place, drove the half hour to the new Freightliner dealership in our area, couldn't find the gate I was supposed to enter in their ginormous new compound, finally found the correct gate, circled the parking lot trying desperately to find a slot for my SUV as they clearly haven't yet sorted out customer parking, eventually found a spot that was so far out in the lot that it could conceivably be considered part of the next township, hustled into the building in the hopes of getting in and out of there as fast as possible, and then stood there and waited and waited and waited.   Gahh!!   There were at least 100 cars in the parking lot, so clearly they have a ton of staff in this huge new facility, but apparently there was only 1 guy on parts and he was having problems with his computer and trying to help the person ahead of me in line.  Finally, another parts person showed up, got me my part, and I was on my way.

As I stormed huffily out of the building, mid way across the wide expanse of the parking lot, I was struck with an epiphany.  I was angry because I was having to walk so far to get to my vehicle when what I really wanted to be doing was ..... walking!  So here comes the first Rolling Stones tidbit ... "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need" ... yeah, nuff said.

But then as I got into my car, because obviously I still hadn't yet reconciled my bad attitude with my new-found insight, I heaved a big sigh and said, "But God, this isn't what I had in mind for a walk!  I wanted something, you know, inspirational, where I would feel in touch with nature, and even find something lovely and photo-worthy!"  So I pulled out of the huge parking lot, turned on to the busy industrial street, and something caught my eye.   There in the very next parking lot was a family of geese, marching their way from a marshy ditch across the pavement to a grassy lawn in front of one of the neighbouring factories.   The mother goose was leading the little ones in a huddling line, the father goose was honking in circles around them, making sure nothing was going to come too close.  And since I do work for my own husband, I had the freedom to pull over, stop and get out of my SUV, camera-in-hand, and watch the little goose family for a few precious moments.

So I did get what I needed, and what I wanted, it just didn't come in the way in which I was expecting.

And now on to another Rolling Stones tidbit ... totally unrelated, and yet one I can really relate to:

"I always have an unmade bed, don't you?"  (Monkey Man)

But perhaps that's a topic for another day.  :)