Thinking Better Thoughts

I feel so grateful to be here. How did I stumble into this beautiful life that I have? Very deliberately, I think, but it also involved a lot of serendipity. 

I love thinking about what makes me happy instead of what is not going right with the world. I am choosing peace over outrage, good cheese and wine over gloppy food, Handel's Messiah over Christmas schmaltz. And sleep. Tonight I am choosing sleep over surfing for more so-called information. A NYT puzzle will be just the impetus needed to lure me under the covers. That and a few fluffy pillows.

That Girl

Coming upstairs long after I’ve tucked Emily, in and finding her in her too-short pajamas, bare feet on the cold wood floor, pencil clutched, scratching on a scrunched-up scrap of paper.

Mama: What are you doing?

Emily: Well, it's just that I was trying to sleep, and I cam up with a question about life and I just had to write it down.

Smile. Close door. That girl.

(Four short years ago, and she's still the same.)