In the middle

It's hard not to eavesdrop while knitting at the coffee shop, especially now that the weather is hotter and school is wrapping up and everybody wants to meet a friend someplace air conditioned before they all go off for the summer.

Yesterday was something special, though. When I arrived, the only free seat was beside two retired gentlemen talking over real estate values in cottage country and which of their friends' cottages was where while they finished their coffees.

When they left, their places were immediately filled by two girls, both just finished their year at university, meeting up to catch up on the last day one of them would be in town. The one leaving first? Newly married, with in-laws from an entirely different culture speaking an entirely different language, and living with them part time as she starts a specialized degree. The other? Leaving soon for another country where she knows nobody but hopes to find a job. She told her friend that people keep admiring her bravery but she doesn't get it, because she doesn't consider herself brave and has no idea how she came to be heading off into the unknown and is frankly a little scared.

That's pretty much the spectrum, isn't it - finding your way in your 20s, reassuring yourself of your place in your 70s. And there I was in the middle, knitting.

And then I came home and guess what?


The peony bloomed.