More LoLo (30:30)

LoLo Reynolds did what she does and dropped the cushion directly in front of the old beater couch and followed with dropping her knees onto the cushion and leaned her arms and elbows and wrists and edges of her palms on the couch and had her fingers intertwined in what could be considered a somewhat spiritual way and began her daily morning praying, and it’s daily because she does it every day, every morning, pretty much always at this time and this time is usually right around 6am because the clock on the small table next to Lolo’s bed sounds it’s nature-sounds alarm exactly at 5:48 each morning and LoLo rarely dithers and never pulls the covers over her head and most always sighs a sigh of here I am again gratitude, leaving the warm bed and whatever covers the last night’s temperature required and (she thinks) here I am again to welcome another day and lucky me, blessed again, and she gets up and visits the bathroom from which she emerges with a wetly-splashed face and moves out into the living room and then it’s the sacred cushion dropped to the floor and LoLo dropped to the cushion and there are the beginning of that day’s prayers, and with the prayers every morning of LoLo Reynolds we find repeats from every other day (the ask for big wide compassion is one, and the best attention ever is another, and all brain cells jumping around with giddiness, that’s another) because LoLo is a believer that repetition is a good thing when applied to good things – like these prayers – and also the repeated prayers tend to stick around and show up again in her head during other times of the day, so there are the same old prayers every single morning and then there may be others as well,

And this is slightly whimsical (others) in which a new request just sort of shows up out of the clear and big old blue or maybe because of life situations and that Beach Boys song called ‘You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone’ which comes from an album LoLo owns and has always loved and she believes the message of that song and so if there is something going on and it feels big or special or real important or some or all of those she is quite willing to pray for a special, specific help and here it is a Wednesday morning – four hours before she is due to show up at her work – and LoLo amidst all the usuals is asking this morning for big mindfulness, and by this she means being really really aware of every moment she can, so like walking from the living room into the kitchen paying attention to where each foot falls and then again and then the next foot falling and reaching for cereal and the sound it makes falling into the bowl which she will find in the dish drainer by the sink, the right side of the sink she sees, the red bowl, and thinks and acknowledges and how her sweatshirt feels when it passes over her head and slides down the top of her body and this is the first time in a long time she has made this special prayer and it’s because this could be a big day for her especially later this afternoon when she will rush out from her job and move real quick down our Venice Beach walkway all the way to Wonder Pizza and meet up with me (Milky Dent) once again as that’s what we do, we hang together and love together and whenever possible get Wonder slices together,

So this (big mindfulness) is a special prayer today and LoLo gets up and she is aware – she’s already feeling her prayer being answered – when she walks into the kitchen and turns on the coffee pot and then she gathers her books and notebooks should any inspirations show up which are in need of recording and then the coffee is churgling and choogling and even possibly a giggling quality of noise – which she pays good attention to – and she fills her favorite mug which she got at the Muir Woods gift shop six years ago and she puts a little cream and then coffee so no spoon is necessary and she brings the mug and herself and her wicked cute butt (yes, this is me, Milky, adding those adjectives) over to the recliner and leans back and begins sipping the sweet delicious gift from the Gods hot coffee and reading a mystery novel and noting she might decide to switch to Pema Chodrin in a few minutes and – bang and silly goose and oh where is all the extra mindfulness now – spills most of a cup of hot coffee onto herself and onto the recliner and it’s a hot one (not Santana) and she jumps up and yowls the kind of yowl part physical and part duh and then walks back into her bedroom and looks at the bed with its covers she straightened out a little before leaving for the cushion and the prayers (and wonders again about where the heck the mindfulness is) and takes off her coffee-soaked cutoff jeans and then slips off her slightly brown-tinged white cotton panties, and this you may find interesting – LoLo never wears any undergarment other than white cotton panties because she likes the feel and shopping is easy and she believes entirely with her whole self that there is no sexier undergarment on the whole planet than plain old white cotton panties and you can take that belief to all the banks in the southland and so into the laundry basket goes that pair and the cut-offs and good thing she has more cutoffs and of course she has more white cotton panties and if you were to take an inventory of her top bureau drawer you could count 17 pair because she has 18 pair in all and yesterday afternoon was a laundry day so the whole supply was in the drawer last night when she went to bed wearing the now slightly damp for the wrong reason pair which she floats on three-pointer-like accuracy across the room into the basket and what you do when you spill your morning coffee, being a true lover of coffee, is of course make some more and Lolo does and then brings the new cup with a little cream in the bottom back to the recliner and takes the Crais book and starts reading again and sipping again and having all the while a consciousness right at the front of her brain, like right behind and just above her eyes,

That man is this the life and yeah she is really paying attention now and putting the cup after each sip very carefully back on the coffee table (such a good name) and she is giving thanks in another part of her person, a mix of her (I know) strong soul and caring heart and goofy thinking mind that she is truly blessed with all of these already this morning adventures like a warm bed to get out of and her truly loved and slightly battered praying cushion and the thrift shop couch and her favorite Muir Woods mug and the lovely Italian roasted coffee and the hot shower waiting and these fresh pair of white cotton panties which makes her laugh out loud at being (I gave her this description) terminally cool and plus she loves her job which came from following her bliss and knowing it’ll be slices of Wonder’s pizza with yours truly only a few hours from now and there will be the ocean and there will be the colored sunset and there will be her mind always ready to say a big thanks again. And, hopefully, she mindfully is thinking,  giving thanks in a really mindful way.