The ornate and varied architecture of downtown Oakland
Beginning to type and feeling my brain purr, going back to the thing that I am meant to do, above and around all else
Beer in the fridge, stocked by me, meant for me
Friends who reach out; the options of yes and no, both given joyfully
A fluffy cat, patient as I pick a little dread out from under his infinitely sweet chin
The awareness of being in another first act
Midwestern Nice used for the power of good
An unread shelf, unpacked after months, shining and new and alluring
Casting my own future as I pick lodgings for my next trip
A two-block walk to buy hair dye
The cheap cheese-end bin at the grocery store
Seeing my work attached to an icon on my phone, a real thing someone could someday use
That our knowledge of love and its strangeness and ways deepens for all of the rest of our days
My quickening breath, my capable body, the elliptical after a long absence
Reassuring wildly worthy people of my unmeasurably massive belief in them and all their dreams
Needing to buy more tea and planning an entire anticipated outing to do just that
A quick tongue at the right time
A sincere tongue when quickness isn’t the order of the day
A friend’s trust when I most need to support someone I love
The last Christmas fudge
Abundant teachers and the promise that I’ll someday join their ranks
My French teacher’s gleeful, pragmatic sadism
The particular intoxication of fighting a sleeping pill before plunging, willingly, beneath its wooly grey waves
That place where software engineering touches the older layers of the miracle of long-distance communication
Cats in bed, an unbounded morning, rain against the window
Realizing I forgot my untouched beer for several minutes, the spell of writing enough for a bit
Seeing the feast waiting where famine once was; seeing past an irritable moment to remember, again, fresh each time, that I have everything I need, plus things I haven’t even dreamed of needing yet
That even in the dark, the dim, the damp, my weirdly stalwart heart (sometimes labeled my stupid, persistent heart) lies shining, waiting for me to catch up, because oh, the fun we are going to have this year