Reader\'s Digest Australia - 06.2019

34 | June• 2019

LIFE’S LITTLE SPILLS

HAWK’S REST

Police were called to a home in the US after a report there

was an intruder inside the house. The officers found a hawk

relaxing in the jacuzzi. FOXNEWS

could be, and I just can’t think of one.
I put this question to a friend, and
she said that the ruined dress was
one of those lessons about the im-
permanence of things, about non-
attachment. About how everything
changes and how life is
about letting go.
I considered this.
And then I thought,
I already know that.
Doesn’t everyone over,
say, 40, know it? Hav-
en’t we all lost a lot of
things? In fact, not to
sound too dreary, but
doesn’t it sometimes
seem as if life is just one
big leave-taking after another – from
your children, from weather that
makes sense, from people we love
who move far away or die too young?
So much loss! A new dress isn’t a
show of attachment to material ob-
jects (OK, maybe a little). I knew the
dress would start looking shabby one
day. But buying a new dress is an act
of hope, a show of spirit in the face of
an unreliable universe.

At least that’s what my new dress

was. It had been a trying year. And

now my emblem of hope had these

big black splotches all over it.

But you know what? Here’s what

I’m attached to. Possibility. Pleas-

ure. They’re less lofty

than hope, less credu-

lous, less faith based,

but they’re also more

accessible.

I went to the f lea

market yesterday, and

I found a pretty little

platter. It’s practically

ordering me to roast a

chicken, invite a cou-

ple of people over,

and serve the chicken on it. I think

I’ll make peach cobbler for des-

sert. Someone, probably me, could

drop and break the platter during

the evening – it’s unlikely but pos-

sible, like the ink exploding from

my pen – but was that a reason not

to buy it?

My dress and I – we were great

while we lasted. Never mind. That’s

the way some love affairs go.

Buying a new

dress is an act of

hope, a show of

spirit in the face

of an unreliable

universe

EXCERPTED FROM WOULD EVERYBODY PLEASE STOP? REFLECTIONS

ON LIFE AND OTHER BAD IDEAS © 2017 BY JENNY ALLEN. PUBLISHED

BY SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS, AN IMPRINT OF FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX.

© 2017 BY JENNY ALLEN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.