Words
Silences
Gentle sunrises
Intense sunsets
Those days the air brushes cheeks just rightly
The climb from Prospect Street up Round Hill Road
The sky
Feet
Floor
Legs
Teenagers’ hugs
Eleven year-old boy’s hugs
Kindergartner’s leaps into arms with warning
Dear Hubs’ hugs
Dearest Hubs
Dear friends
Teenagers’ friends
Fifth grade friends
Small girl’s tried-and-true friends
New school friends
My kids’ elementary school
Kindergarten
My kids’ former preschool
That preschool begets the adjective former
Holding babies
Holding visions
Holding confidences
Problem solving and problem holding
Bratty moments
The Y
Gymnastics teachers
Berkshire Natural vending machines
Open gymnastics
My camera
My computer
My paper calendar
Comfort, the ability to give
Peace
Justice
Feminism
Activists
Feminists
Farmers
Community
A certain soccer coach I’m married to
A certain soccer coach I’m mother to
My mothers’ group
My writing groups
Writing
Readers
Mentors
Modern medicine
Yoyos
Nashville, on television and in real life
Music of Nashville
Live music
Jamming, as in making jam
Skype connections
Editors
Theater
An aspiring director I’m mother to
Being fifty with a five-year-old
Books
Picture books
Small girl’s drawings
The small girl’s mother
Family, as we live it
Willingness to keep trying
Laughter
Tears
Television
Frozen Yogurt
White noise machine
Sleep
As is true every year, the list really does go on and on, long past the last entry that gets written down. I do practice observation—and I do believe from observation comes gratitude. Even when the going gets tough, and this year has had its fair share of tough, I feel grateful for getting to meet it and hold it and struggle. Living is all these things, small and big, hard, easy, and in that way, we get to the sweetness—and learn to savor it.
