these are a few of my favorite things...
stacey at on the backs of angels has said 'lighten up' to herself, i think that's probably something i need to say to myself too... more gentleness breaks. so here are a few of my favorite things. okay, it's a lot, but gratitude is good for the soul.
- eight o'clock coffee - fresh ground in my garbage picked cuisinart coffee maker that grinds the beans then brews the coffee. their decaf is the best coffee you will ever taste. affordable and of a higher quality than most of the 'coffee house' beans (okay, there a few better specialty beans, but twice the price just isn't worth it for everyday.). and yes, my coffee maker works beautifully. some rich person couldn't be bothered to spray out the water resevoir so they thought it was broken and set it to the curb in the BOX!
- garbage picking, dumpster diving, hilly-billy christmas, call it what you will, but i love 'big garbage day'. many think i should be ashamed for 're-using', but i think more should be ashamed at what they throw away (although please don't stop, as i am grateful!) this year i got my water cooler!
- a good used bookstore. especially one that i've never been in before. i love them, no, i adore them.
- catwalk honey and oatmeal shampoo comfort food for your hair.
- splenda
- long, meaningless drives in the country with no destination, rhyme or reason.
- seeing that tiny little scar on liam's upper lip for the first time (and every time since) he shaved his mustache and goatee off for me after i asked him to. i had never in 20 years of knowing him seen his whole face.
- kissing those hairless lips!
- belly laughing with pink and buck when their real sense of humor shows itself from time to time.
- finding out that starbucks make a sugar-free, french vanilla, soy, iced latte
- hearing waves of a lake come into shore and the tinging of the masts of the sailboats in harbor.
- butter. it is the ultimate comfort food.
- cobalt blue glass
- finding a piece of blue and white pottery for my oddball dish collection
- restaurant ware dishes, they are so smooth and chunky, i love them, especially in blue and white.
- fresh ground pepper
- being heard by people i respect.
- blogging and reading blogs
- watching my dad smile
- hearing liam preach
- worship in large crowds with the lights off
- the feel of an old binding in my hands from a book i treasure and the smell of the pages
- a big feather pillow
- standing on a step and hugging liam, looking into his eyes without craning my neck
- good hair days
- flat irons
- driving standard really, really fast
- the feel of the wind in my hair (i wouldn't do this anymore, but when i was in college one of the guys i dated had a motorcycle and we would ride without helmets in the warm, summer rain - there was nothing like that).
- bridging cultural divides and finding kindred souls
- finding that old friends have embraced new truth
- explaining something difficult to someone and seeing the light of understanding flash across their eyes
- replacing the lies with the truth
- the scent of patchouli
- diet rite cola
- crisp, fresh granny smith apples, alone or with peanut butter
- unique and different really, really good cheese (what can i say, i'm a dairy fairy...)
- great lyrics
- a good cry
- when princess fiona stayed an ogre
- tickle belly hills
- laughing with my relatives until your cheeks hurt and your stomach is sore
- making someone who is funny laugh
- sitting at the 'fun table'
- playing california canasta with my aunts
- finishing well (it happens so rarely)
- the relief that comes from having the checkbook balanced and the bills paid, with some money left in the bank (it happens less rarely than it used to)
- waking up after 7:00 in the morning (that is happening less and less as i age... ugh).
- using those early, early mornings to write from my heart.
- watching pink learn about growing up and finding herself in the mirror with the innocence of an eight year old.
- buck's single dimple in his right cheek, and the gleem in his eye when it shows.
- taking my bra off (sorry guys, this is a feeling you will never understand, but i'm sure it's a bit like what heaven is going to be like!)
- catching liam watching me
- seeing someone using their gifts well
- giving extravagently and secretly
- finding a comfy chair and a good book/magazine at the library at the same time
- the library in my home town. it looked out at the lake and was designed by one of frank lloyd wright's apprentices, the smell of that place brings calm to my soul. it's one of my favorite places on earth.
- the boat house at the camp just down the lake from the library where i would sit early in the morning to hear the waves and tinging of the masts.
- coming home to a clean house (and that is the rarest of all!)
- holding hands with my family while we pray before a meal and feeling my father stroke my fingers and squeeze my hand while we pray.
- that first rush of wow that happens when liam and i have been apart for an extended time period. when he returned from nepal after 2 weeks the electicity was tangible. i love that feeling. unfortunately we have to be apart to feel it. (he's away for the weekend at a music festival with the teens - yay sunday!)
- watching a storm roll in and seeing the lightening dance across the sky
- going out for breakfast, i guess it reminds me of my mom. she's always wake me up during my teen years by bribing me with breakfast so she'd have some company for the day. we'd go junkin' after that. those are some of my favorite memories.
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