Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut. — Haruki Murakami

Thank you always for the four elements of true love.

Thank you for meaningful talks with future friends.

Thank you for a chat with a stranger over Thai noodles.

Thank you for her advice “to be the best you are and be safe.”

Thank you for her tip on a new way to look at the golden rule—treat others (and self) the way a benevolent higher power would treat you.

Thank you for the latest read (on NDEs) explicitly reinforcing her messages.

Thank you for funny coincidences and novel encounters.

Thank you for the opportunity to meet role models, wave at them…

Thank you for problems that spur me to think more deeply.

Thank you for emptiness in the abstract.

Thank you for empty headspace opening room for stifled emotions to heal.

Thank you for emptiness in the concrete.

Thank you for empty drawers, closets, counters holding space for senses to calm.

Thank you for black sheep.

Thank you for solidarity in knowing that if we are disliked, we are in good company.

Thank you for nighttime chats in the kitchen with D and G (over {THE AND} cards).

Thank you for deep snoots discussions.

Thank you for productive hours with peppermint tea.

Thank you for commonplace books.

Thank you for efforts at routines. Thank you for routines not as fences to trap monotony, but as scaffold to support climbs.

Thank you for the many ways to look at life. Thank you for choices to see differently.

Thank you for self love. Enjoying how it feels to smile at strangers is self love of the inner warmth variety. Uncorking a sappy compliment rather than bottling it is self love of liberation. Apologizing can be self love of integrity. Being vulnerably, unapologetically open can be self love through acceptance. And all have possibilities for connection as a bonus.

Then there are the more practical self-love varieties, like using the bathroom when the urge hits and heading to bed when tired. Eating when hungry until full, counts. Same with drinking when thirsty. Prepping tasty meals for one’s self is another… (What are ways you show yourself love?)

Thank you for care for ourselves inseparable from care for each other.

Thank you for “Isn’t She Lovely” playing on shuffle to remind of sisters.

Thank you several times over for relationship bids.

Thank you for NM letting me in on the Soft White Underbelly (YouTube).

Thank you for gratitude practices feeding enthusiasm.

Thank you for visons of home keeping me afloat.

Thank you for your growth and mine, and the challenges that spark them. Thank you for when persistence is in lockstep with wisdom. Thank you for turning tides. Thank you for life’s gifts each moment of every day and its wonders in store for the future. Thank you for you. <3