12:14 p.m. Things are looking up. Things are always looking up, actually, if you want it that way. I wanted to talk about our walk yesterday, which is why I put up that picture of the cardboard people walking, but I got sidetracked and found myself off on a tangent, in another cul de sac, lost as usual. So today, I'll try to keep my eyes on the road and stay on topic. The walk. There is nothing more fun than a walk. You never know what you're going to find, or to see.

For example, I found those cardboard people on the top of someone's garbage, thrown out with the trash on a walk a year ago. They were probably: the backdrop of a play? The beginnings of an art project? An attempt to pretend you had visitors by propping them up in the window? I often wonder why people throw such fine stuff away.

Same thing when it comes to yard sales. Love yard sales. Treasures are to be found.

We went out specifically to find some new old clothes at either a garage or a yard sale because Igor needs a new pair of swim trunks. For some unknown reason we both tend to wear clothing until it falls off the body in shreds. I've learned to darn and patch and even embroider over the patch in my attempts to hold a beloved, comfortable item together, but finally last weekend, Igor's swimming shorts just gave up and fell down for good.

In fact, I once read the most wonderful hint for the day in Sandra Tsing Loh's very funny book, Depth Takes a Holiday. She describes the way her thrifty father would turn his sweater around and wear it backwards once the elbows started to wear out, thus getting a whole new sweater, practically, and totally embarrassing his child in the process.

I've tried this with bedroom slippers, and they last for an extra year that way. It's a little uncomfortable at first, but it really works.

Now, I will try to give you my own handy hint for the day. It's quite profound, actually, and if I don't explain it very well for you today, or if you don't believe me, trust me, I'm going to bring this up again. Come back and I will repeat this, over the months and the years, I promise. It's one of the most amazing things I've stumbled on in life, and I must share it.

It's this: if you put into your mind what you are looking for -- exactly! It must be exact -- and if you go wandering out with a very clear heart and a sort of lilies-of-the-field temperament (rather than a Filene's Basement determination) than by golly, dang if you won't find that exact thing. I mean it. I swear it. I can give you many many interesting examples of it.

You might call it serendipity. Some people do. Certainly, if you're cynical and frightened and your spirit is shrunken or withered, you will call it coincidence. But it's not. I know it for a fact. Does the empirical method mean anything these days? I have tested this theory again and again and again, and it works, it works, it works.

Take, for instance, yesterday. Igor wanted bathing trunks. We wandered off to take a walk. I'm looking for pretty pictures for my web pages here. Of course, just toward the end of the walk, there in the shimmering distance were the jolly flags and the spread-out dry goods of a typical yard sale, and it took no time at all to find a laundry basket off to the side with not one, not two, but four different swimming trunks to choose from, one a brand-new Speedo, all for .25 cents each. Ok?

Still not convinced? We were almost home and I'd only taken a few shots when I looked up and saw the huge branches stuck in the wires, above, (click) and then, a few feet later ... Igor pointed out this pile of pennies thrown in a parking meter hole on the side of the street. People were just sort of putting them there, wishing-well style, in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day, because they are shiny. (click)

Now, if you're a skeptical person and you don't believe what I'm telling you here, that's all right. It's a lot to take in at once. Could it be true that there's a rhythm that we might be able to feel, a wave we can almost catch and surf home on? It's just not possible, right? That we are part of something bigger and more benign than we can imagine?

If you think I didn't take these pictures yesterday, exactly as I'm reporting here, or that I'm not wearing one of the .25 pair of shorts right now as I type, then that's ok, too. You're just not ready to trust in this particular miracle. It's ok. I'll repeat it another time, with another example. Eventually I'll prove it to you because it is true.

Or, you could try it yourself. Write down any dreams vivid enough to remember when you first wake up. Write down the date and put the pages away. Take them out again in a year. You'll see it for yourself. We are dreaming up our own futures.

But don't just trust me. Try it on for size. It's a little uncomfortable at first, but it really works.