Things that feel so good, body & soul. A list.

Amelie and Kai in conversation

Body…

1. Fresh sheets.
2. Cold showers just before jumping into bed on hot summer nights (with wet hair, of course).
3. Having my hair brushed.
4. A kiss on the cheek. Why are there not more cheek kisses? Must I go to Europe?
5. A real, honest-to-goodness, arms wrapped-tightly hug from some one who really loves me. And I, them. A good hug says, I surround you with my love, my devotion, my protection and all my resources. I embrace who you are. You are not alone…
6. The rich smell of my Rocky Mountain Thunder coffee brewing in the morning. The short wait is agonizing and tantalizingly aromatic.
7. The sound of real  Rocky Mountain thunder just before a late afternoon storm. Heard several times this week.
8. Splashing in rain puddles with a grandbebe following one of those short, but powerful downpours.
9. Playing in the summer rain with my mutt because I don’t have anywhere to be and I don’t mind getting wet. In fact, I find it liberating – recalling the joys of childhood – back before hair styles and hair products had to be worried about.
10. A really good watermelon, so sweet and a little tangy, with a pleasant scent. After months of storing up the power of the spring and summer rains and bright, hot sunshine, cut open to be enjoyed, ice cold deliciousness. We ingest a hundred days of life-growing goodness {rivers of juice and mountains of red flesh} in the eating.

Soul…

1. Laughing so hard you cry real tears. Then you get to laugh again at the remembrance.
2. A movie theater with no one else there – and a movie you can just get. in. to. Perfection!
3. Watching a Youtube video so touching, you get goosebumps.
4. When an important person you admire and respect stops everything and gives you the simple gift of time, just time.
5. Getting to sing songs with some one who loves the music you love.
6. When you fall head-over-heels in love with the song because the melody is amazing and the words – the words(!) could have been something you could have written. The songwriters who tell our stories are insightful and extraordinary human beings, even if the artist who communicates them so well do get most of the glory.
7. Being understood. Being forgiven. Being liked. Being needed. Being valued.
8. When you haven’t blogged for a month and some one checks to make sure you’re ok.
9. Being a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a mom, a nonna – knowing you’re a woman with a million things to be grateful for and a good-enough sized group of people to love and share life with. As Amy Grant sang, “Baby, baby, I’m the lucky one.”
10. When some one just goes the extra mile for me in some way. Why is that so surprising these days? It opens my heart and soul right up – makes me feel so generous and apt to do the same thing back. So if we all just started going the extra mile…imagine it!

 Averi (6) and Amelie Belle (4). No shopping trip would be complete without some team-work balancing feats.

The immensity and grandeur of life continually absorb and eradicate death’s power and presence.

-Wm. Paul Young in his novel, Cross Roads

Life is the quicker-picker-upper. ;) What keeps you fully alive and living and feeling good?