There’s a new day coming.

Thank you for D sending a Bernice Johnson Reagon song (Jacob’s Ladder) from ABQ. 

Thank you for a dream about a donkey the size of my little girl, scraping his butt as he scaled a fence. (I comforted him outside the pen.)

Thank you for NM’s “little sugar balloons,” AKA grapes. 

Thank you for a summer road trip with her and MG. Thank you for their life adventure.

Thank you for the mom at Whole Foods who asked about my Rowdy Mermaid before fetching one for herself and plopping it on the belt next to mine.

Thank you for caffeine-free fizzy, fruity booch.

Thank you for AV and LS (and so many others) making possible delivery of the house in a few weeks.

Thank you for congrats from the online banker, Michelle.

Thank you for visions. Thank you for loved ones to lessen the fear of walking through a new door. Thank you for confidence in deliberate choices aided by searching, fasts, meditations (prayer), conversations, brainstorms, weighed pros and cons, pursued false starts, happenstance... 

Thank you for new phases in motion. 

Thank you for the unknown.

Thank you for being and doing on planet earth. 

Thank you for land untouched by cars and trucks. Thank you for auto-free zones. 

Thank you for courage to be boring. I guess you could say interest is in the eye of the beholder.

Thank you again for our differences making us beautiful.

Thank you for simple activities to grow and connect in alignment with values. (Cooking and sharing meals. Movement in nature. Stillness in nature. Movement anywhere. Bonding with humans and non-humans. Reading and listening and looking. Exploring.)

Thank you always for acceptance of a spectrum of emotions.

Thank you for the oddity of legs viewed as massive arms sprouting from hips instead of shoulders, and arms as baby legs up high.

Thank you for infinite conditions for happiness in each moment.

Thank you for a day on the town celebrating AH’s birthday. Thank you for massages that tenderized us. Thank you for a sloppy Mexican feast. Thank you for a Skin Deep heart to heart, and a text afterward that read, “Thank you for your kittens” (autocorrect). Thank you for her friendship blessing my life.

Thank you for the empathy of friends and family. Thank you for their positive influence. Thank you for trust exchanged. Thank you for nourishing communication.

Thank you for willingness to be hurt and faith that we’re loved.

Thank you for belief in kind spirits’ access to our thoughts. Thank you for signs.

Thank you for reaching out on a happy whim to tie loose ends. I had clung to worries about past involvements—one with a gal pal in grad school in New York, and the other with a high school boyfriend. So finally I apologized in both cases, and expressed forgiveness in the latter. Thank you for catharsis after decades of silence. Thank you for BT’s reply warming my heart.

Thank you for words needlessly unspoken sounding out.

Thank you for SHM’s Cereus blooming.

Thank you for cutesy French terms like “messagerie.”

Thank you for the wind chime tinkling through the open door.

Thank you again for well-functioning bodies and all their parts. Thank you for comfort in my casing.

Thank you for morning meditations and stretches.

Thank you for JOMO.

Thank you again for re-reads of past entries. Why does it hurt to click “publish”? A latest guess, it’s the specter of those wee invisible boxes, mislabeled “Acceptance” and “Success”—the containers our society tries to smoosh our selves into. For some of us, the boxes are tagged “Normal.” For others, it’s “Different” or “Special.” Squishing into them clamps shut our hearts, yet straying from them flouts norms (even norms for being different). Thank you for commitment to our truths liberating us.

Thank you for paths of free selves.

Wishing you open doors to an expansive future. Be well! Know you are loved <3