nonverbal communication in quotations

The deer walk up to him. So do the chipmunks. Though it sounds like a Disney movie, it's more, "ummmm listen, this is my food."

The deer does not actually answer verbally but by it's behavior seems to convey, "the last dude gave me food."

Today I am grateful that he got past all the bears and is adept at telling a deer or a chipmunk that his food is his.

thank you, internet

Thank you for allowing this to still exist.

sous vide

If your day ends on the edge of a pond with two children dancing and a German Shepherd reminding you she's there, then you've made it. It doesn't get any better. No fancy watch or ride (never mind. I have one of those.) or jewelry or clothes to impress anyone, but food.

ohmygosh. you and me, we sous vide.


Today I am grateful to watch as Chef Ming prepares me a meal.

good sign

It's the music the next morning.
"But I'm scared."

"Trust the process," he says.


Today I am grateful for a second place win, more nachos and fried dill pickles and beer than anyone needs, and a small group of people. That was nice.

does your heart good

It's that one guy who shows up at the end of the day.
With that smile on his face.

Today I am grateful to find out he's okay.

he who sends the quotes

"We're going to start with small, easy things. Then, little by little we shall try our hand at the big things. And after that, after we finish the big things, we shall undertake the impossible."

I imagine that Nikos Kazantzakis paused before he wrote, "Reach what you cannot."

jumping puddles

"You're fine. It's just us," I tell her but she's already having a bad day. She claimed it three hours ago, and I pushed for an afternoon interview. Bad day is something. A hard rain, deep puddles, and cooler temperatures can be seen either way, but I've been heard to say, "I love a good rain."

It was good.

She laughs but only because I'm a bully.


Today I am grateful for rain.


(of course, I'm going to link to this. eye rolls welcome here.)

a day of rest and swooning

I think maybe on a Sunday night somewhere at the edge of a cliff there is a song that begins softly on a pine bed. He sings, "Climb," and it does, that song. When the very young Leon Bridges sings Mrs. and a very middle aged single woman listens, there is clearly some shame.

Dang.


Today I am grateful for two rides in the back of two pickup trucks, the dogs who chased us, a lovely breakfast, and how for just one moment I looked out and felt that feeling I had as a kid. Awestruck, I think it is.

live action

There's no sense in having too many moments if so many great moments can be captured with a camera. It just makes the live action that much more thrilling.


Today I am grateful for a ride, a field, and lights.

hype and heart

He has the hype. I wanted to show the heart of us.



Today I am grateful to be whatever part of what this is.

I would argue that

She's right. The fight is stupid.


Aggression is so real and knotted and fueled by blood pumping and neurons firing and a whole lot of blinding that you figure if you could channel it into something less violent and more creative then maybe...

you would be Quentin Tarantino.
you would begin to levitate.
we'd all feel better about the future.


Today I am grateful for plenty of parking, plans for the porch, and a woman who seems to have to listen to me. I am grateful for her.

morning

It's the little things, the small details nobody else would notice. He notices.
That draws me to him and repels him from me. It's the perfect relationship.


Today I am grateful for a home, a couch, a bed, a shower, a morning.

titans of industry

He goes all the way to the ground, his body bent at the waist and the knees.
Those knees, the concrete. His shoulder, his ear.
He can't about see from the spider webs in the hot water heater.

Today I am grateful for a man who is handy, his cousin who helps him, and a company I can call to fix it.

the ppp

Today I am grateful for progress, plumbing, and purpose.

the goto tribe

We went on a night hike in search of a hole that stirs itself.
We didn't find the hole but we did scare a child bad enough that he cried.


Today I am grateful for the goto people.

photograph

If that was the last picture you took, you'd be glad you got it.  
She mentions it when you see her at the game.
"E'rebody," she says, "is trying for a shot at a mention. Even the dang photographer."


Today I am grateful that up until that moment whenever it is I got that picture.
She's the best coach I've had.                          

love always

It's just that iPhone red heart with not even a space but a lower case a following. Then the l, the w, the a, the y, and the s.

Can that be our hashtag?
Can we make the L sign with either hand?


Today I am grateful for large groups, small groups, individuals, humans, people, people everywhere, every, every, every where.

she steals

She steals, and she has flash cards. Their parents are against the thievery, not the learning but when she pulls out that puppy, half as big as her, and smiles like she's bringing home a prize and it's not even clean, and you ask,

"Where'd ju get that?"
(You already know. Her daddy told you.)

She smiles like she knows that you already know she stole that from school.

"School."

She is one of the best interviewees of all time.

"Did you borrow it?"

She leans in and though her eyes seem to get more serious, the smile gets more interesting, happier, more complex until in possibly a decibel above whispering, she delivers.

"I stole it."

It's not funny, and at no point should you smile, laugh, or get in her way.

You should simply say, "See what you can get tomorrow."



Today I am grateful for a large thin crusted pepperoni pizza and two hungry girls.

not an eviction notice

She was embarrassed about the length of time it took from enjoyment to a testament of gratitude. She typed the rules and called them information. Do you ever look out and wonder if you're good enough? And then at the very brink of possibly answering that question with a negative, or heck answer it that way and then listen as a friend or your daddy or your brother or your mom or your kid shows you that you're good enough for them and they're some of the greatest people you know.

Today I am grateful that they were late, that I sat in an air conditioned office, that he called, he texted,  she left a note taped to my door. Just when I think I don't deserve people I look up and realize who is surrounding me. Their love is a gift, and my heart swells with gratitude for it.

midlife midweek

Today I am grateful for a familiar voice, a smile, a struggle, and the promise of a lunch. I am grateful for age, old movies, and a soundtrack we both love.

videography/we work well together

It was the way the dog food sucked from the can. The noise, that gel like substance which also adds to the sound of the so densely packed horse meat - correct? - when it hits the bowl on the kitchen floor. Anyway, it was the way he captured it.





Today I am grateful for the way it looks, for honesty, for when my hand hits yours or we look at each other and you smile because there was that win we shared. I am ready to see that again. I am grateful for a young man who has goals and dreams and we begin to discover what's feasible. I am grateful to hear how he dares greatly and how he is the man in the arena.



I am grateful for a text, an offer to work together again.
(He's just putting the food in my bowl.)

no spoilers here, maybe one

Three meetings in two days but before then I have to tell you about the movie.

First, I almost couldn't get in the front door because *they made me pick a seat.

*they being the capitalists who own the theater.

*they with the cushy recliners and drink holders for a gargantuan coke icy and buttered popcorn *we were way at the back, seats 3,4,5.

*we with the friends who will watch a movie even though they** have no idea what *you are talking about when you use the name Tarantino.

they**young people.

*you who had to go to the newest Tarantino flick at the theater though you hadn't been to one of those in a while and you were going to miss it if you waited for whatever you were waiting for and then she  laughed and you laughed and he laughed because

*you of the Tarantino, Tarantino, Tarantino must see fell asleep of the snoring variety. I woke myself up thinking it was him.

*him of the them who said it got good there at the end.

*and yes I saw that part.

*Tarantino was a nut.



Today I am grateful for a comfy recliner, a big screen, Brad Pitt, Leo, and Tarantino.

early irony

It's best to leave before the sun gets too bright and we won't talk about what month it is. Instead we'll imagine and discuss and argue and dream and I will touch you ever so lightly on the back of your arm between your shoulder and your elbow and you'll tell me what muscle that is and you make me think of my own muscles.


Today I am grateful for a teacher and a coach, for someone who says think of others but seems to make my body get consumed with itself.

spent

It can surprise you when you see it and it gets to the point that the only time you see anything anymore is when you're looking at history but if there's anything your Daddy taught you, and he taught you more than just anything - it's that you better be spent at the end of the day, end of the week.


Today I am grateful to be spent. I am grateful for a teacher. I am grateful to work alongside people.



This morning's music will be found in yoga class.

girl fight

"Are you going to yoga?" She asks as she is spinning around the classroom.

"Yes. Definitely. I have to. There's no way out. She's my teacher."

"Well you know I've liked her and requested her friendship."

"She's mine."


Today I am grateful for a day of the week, a party tonight, a first of the year, and a girl fight.

but so it's kind of amazing out here

Is relentless kindness too much? Can you hug too hard, too long?

"I'm just trying to help you," he says. "You need to understand social cues."

He's right. I suck at this.

But, I know I shouldn't say but. I should just shut up.

but
it's my job to meet people and be curious and ask questions and it makes me suck as a human
but
also, it's felt like Christmas lately.


So, I'm just grateful they still let me do what I love.

lucky shirts, lucky stars, lucky girl

Data must be entered. Yesterday was Christmas.

Today I am grateful for steady work, headphones, and an office.

making a pie together

Turn the oven to bake at 325 degrees.

Clean the lemons with four good water rinses, a vinegar rinse, and one last water rinse.

Zest. Take the microplane and with just the right amount of pressure to only take the skin, push the lemon away from you one time all around it. Just mark it up, but to a duller color. Put that fruit in your strainer and microplane the next one. Smell. Do all 8.

Crumble your 14 graham crackers made by the maid of honey, blend with a quarter cup of sugar, a quarter teaspoon salt, and half a stick of unsalted melted butter. Pack that into the only springform pan you own. Maybe it's a 9 inch. It's supposed to be.

Whisk two cans of sweetened, condensed milk with the juice of those 8 lemons from earlier. Best in an old silver colored metal mixing bowl. It has it's own music.

But we can always turn some on.

You left those eggs out earlier. They are room temperature. Separate them. Take your time. You're going to waste those whites, but don't tell anyone. The yolks if gotten locally will be a deep gold, full of flavor, protein that is the key to your favorite icebox pie.

Do a heavy whisk on those yolks with the zest. Combine that mixture with the condensed milk/lemon juice combination, pour that into the already crusted springform pan, and bake for 25 minutes.

Put it in the refrigerator for a night or a day.


Cut that pie into 8 pieces.
Spoon the cream on top.
Give 6 of those away.



Today I am grateful for groceries.

relentless grind

It's that point in the week when you have to let go of some things and you roll your thin, already torn mat onto the floor. You pace from that mat to that piece of wall where the baseboard is not missing. Drink plenty of water before going. Lukewarm, if you can stomach it.

Stretch. Stretch bending at the base of your bare toes, pushing your arch toward the board.
You feel it in your calf.
You wonder if you're doing it right.
She says, "It's fine for now."

You spend the next forty-five minutes repeating that process with the different muscles of your body.

It's why you love her.


Today I am grateful for my yoga instructor.

him of the return

He sends a song, says the whole album. But I refuse.
Not until he gets home will I listen to it.



Today I am grateful he is coming home.

sleep

It's the sleep thing. How can I or could I sleep when that awesome night before I started first grade because big school and I couldn't wait and she did not like me. That teacher. My mom was a teacher too and my first grade teacher told that other teacher right in front of me out in the hallway that there was no way I knew that on my own. My mama had given me those answers.

She was correct. My mama gave me a lot of answers.




Today I am grateful for steadfastness, the song, the chicken biscuit, the race to the car, the boxes in the back, the lunch, the leader, the energy, the anticipation, and the rest I'll surely get after yoga class this morning.

knee hugs

Today I am grateful for hugs that make me bend, fuzzy heads, and a baby who likes to hear her daddy sing.