A different sort of letter
Dear Universe,
Thank you for the storm. I love the way the wind thrashes at the trees, the sky goes dark and thick with latent power, and the rain falls in rich wet splats that kick up the scent of earth. I love the way the air is rife with energy and just crackles, bright and strong and vibrant; a storm is always in the moment, and needs no past or future to rattle the windows and resonate in my chest.
Thank you for my wonderful mother, whom I could tell anything without fear of judgment or disapproval. Thank you for Dana, with her bright enthusiasm and constant optimism; thank you for my sister Becca, whom I am still learning to appreciate in all her flawed perfection. Thank you for Cakes and her wit and intellect, for her non-judgmental and forgiving nature. Thank you for the years we've had together and the years we will have yet.
Thank you for Ca'te with her brightness and unadulterated individuality. Thank you for bringing me friends whom I love wholeheartedly with all their flaws, and for the constant reminders that if I can love them, flawed as they are, they can certainly love me as well. Thank you for cookies when we don't have enough chocolate chips, for cheap dinners and the fantastic taste of cheese, for self-righteousness and conceit, for love and reckless abandon.
Thank you, for every powerful emotion we play, for tears and that bitter gritty sting when we refuse to cry. Thank you for joy and consciousness, for weed and the metallic taste of coughing fits, for the written word and the fantastic concepts they embody by lifting gloriously off the page to hover in real space and time as we think them.
Thank you for this world and its flaws, its beauties, its variety and the choices it gives us all. Thank you for my hair and my ankles, my crooked nose and invisible eyebrows, for my freckles and knees and the calluses on my toes; thank you for Dr. Pepper and chopsticks, for encouragement in dark places and for dark places themselves--thank you for distractions, and for the gloriously successful feeling we get when we focus despite them.
Thank you for Nini, and Callie; thank you for Korii and Serey. Thank you for sidewalks and bridges, for placemats and placemat games, for jobs I've had that I grew to hate and jobs I'll have that I'll grow to love. Thank you for books and publishers, for agents and contracts, for email-only submissions and saving the trees--thank you for trees to be saved; thank you for trees worth saving.
Thank you for the insight into appreciation, and the feeling of appreciation itself. Thank you for the powerful realizations that move us to tears, for tissues and people who make sure we're crying for the right reasons. Thank you for fire and fires, for paper and wax, for history's lessons and the lesson that the past can only exist if we create it in the present.
Thank you, dear Universe, for giving all we ask the moment we ask it, and for the patience eternal to keep giving until we embrace that which we've asked for with unbridled joy and empowerment. Thank you for hot dates and hot coffee on hot days, for family and friends and for always being there for us, waiting for us to see and hear and feel the eternal All Is Well.
Thank you for loving us, and knowing always even when we forget it ourselves that we love you, too.
With all my heart, and a rampage of appreciation,
♥
Thank you for the storm. I love the way the wind thrashes at the trees, the sky goes dark and thick with latent power, and the rain falls in rich wet splats that kick up the scent of earth. I love the way the air is rife with energy and just crackles, bright and strong and vibrant; a storm is always in the moment, and needs no past or future to rattle the windows and resonate in my chest.
Thank you for my wonderful mother, whom I could tell anything without fear of judgment or disapproval. Thank you for Dana, with her bright enthusiasm and constant optimism; thank you for my sister Becca, whom I am still learning to appreciate in all her flawed perfection. Thank you for Cakes and her wit and intellect, for her non-judgmental and forgiving nature. Thank you for the years we've had together and the years we will have yet.
Thank you for Ca'te with her brightness and unadulterated individuality. Thank you for bringing me friends whom I love wholeheartedly with all their flaws, and for the constant reminders that if I can love them, flawed as they are, they can certainly love me as well. Thank you for cookies when we don't have enough chocolate chips, for cheap dinners and the fantastic taste of cheese, for self-righteousness and conceit, for love and reckless abandon.
Thank you, for every powerful emotion we play, for tears and that bitter gritty sting when we refuse to cry. Thank you for joy and consciousness, for weed and the metallic taste of coughing fits, for the written word and the fantastic concepts they embody by lifting gloriously off the page to hover in real space and time as we think them.
Thank you for this world and its flaws, its beauties, its variety and the choices it gives us all. Thank you for my hair and my ankles, my crooked nose and invisible eyebrows, for my freckles and knees and the calluses on my toes; thank you for Dr. Pepper and chopsticks, for encouragement in dark places and for dark places themselves--thank you for distractions, and for the gloriously successful feeling we get when we focus despite them.
Thank you for Nini, and Callie; thank you for Korii and Serey. Thank you for sidewalks and bridges, for placemats and placemat games, for jobs I've had that I grew to hate and jobs I'll have that I'll grow to love. Thank you for books and publishers, for agents and contracts, for email-only submissions and saving the trees--thank you for trees to be saved; thank you for trees worth saving.
Thank you for the insight into appreciation, and the feeling of appreciation itself. Thank you for the powerful realizations that move us to tears, for tissues and people who make sure we're crying for the right reasons. Thank you for fire and fires, for paper and wax, for history's lessons and the lesson that the past can only exist if we create it in the present.
Thank you, dear Universe, for giving all we ask the moment we ask it, and for the patience eternal to keep giving until we embrace that which we've asked for with unbridled joy and empowerment. Thank you for hot dates and hot coffee on hot days, for family and friends and for always being there for us, waiting for us to see and hear and feel the eternal All Is Well.
Thank you for loving us, and knowing always even when we forget it ourselves that we love you, too.
With all my heart, and a rampage of appreciation,
♥