Like hearing the total paid for a root canal by the woman in front of me: $25. Not the co-pay, mind you: her entire cost. Or, to be even more precise, $1,480 less than I paid. For the same procedure. Surprise!
Like learning that a major surgery I had almost twenty-five years might now be failing, filling my cheeks and gums and teeth with infection that might only be cured by another invasive surgery to insert new hardware. Surprise!
But today, I happened upon one surprise on which I'd rather think -- the Surprise Lilies (or the Naked Ladies of Sewanee) blooming in Abbo's Alley.
A tiny nymph with a heart-shaped head adornment,
a speeding flower fly,
and a crab spider all paid their respects
with me, shadowed by woods and worry.
No wood drake, no still water, but still "I feel above me the day-blind stars / waiting with their light. For a time / I rest in the grace of the world, and am free" (Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things").
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