1
Mobility. Today I cooked and hosted a Thanksgiving meal, which would have been impossible on many different levels anytime over the last couple years. Mobility is so easy to take for granted, so I didn’t. Every time I bent down and grabbed a vinegar or oil from where I keep them in a cabinet under the counter, I said thank you, thank you, thank you. Every time I held two things, one in each hand– thank you, thank you, thank you. When I sat at the table for hours without moving, or aching, or stiffening up, I said thank you. It has been a long journey to this.
2
Love. I was particularly fond of this short podcast Donny was on today, The Dream. Think. Do. Podcast. It’s fun to think about the unbelievable lives that led us to the same table at Thanksgiving.
3
Reconnecting. The Rarasaur instagram account has been such a delight to me because it visited by people who found me through here. There’s a special sanctity and safety in that. I enjoy the feed on that account because it hasn’t been filled with things I distractedly followed over the years. No, these are all faces connected to lives I have known through blogs and writing. It’s beautiful and humbling to think how words can link us together.
4
Community. My peppers, my peppers, my peppers. This is one of those things that should come as no surprise, but every year NanoPoblano fills my heart and shocks me with how much I love doing this. I wish I had the energy to blog every day all year long, but I think we’ve all had enough of posts about butter and other meanderings, ha!
(Another unrelated thing that should be no surprise but always is to me: how adults I know look like a combination of their parents. I understand the science, but it doesn’t stop me from acting like it’s a magic trick every single time.)
5
Poetry. I’m not as fluent a reader as I once was prior to the strokes, but I have returned to one of my first loves and delved into stacks of poetry books once again. I don’t wish losing the memories of things you love on anyone, but what a gift it is to be able to return to it for the first time again.
What is something that has been joyful to you this month?
rarasaur 