Be the change you want to see.

I woke up this morning to sweet cuddles and caresses from a warm sleepy husband. Nothing more than cuddles this time, as he read his newspaper with one hand and ran the other absent mindedly over my head. I felt like a cat in a lap, warm and contented and loved. When he rose to wash up, I worked on my morning stretches. It feels so good to move the body, the First Home, to have it respond so sweetly to my requests. Bodies are wonderful, they soak up the sunlight and warmth, they feel the touch of loved ones, they can work, kiss, write, interpret for the brain. Bodies are the filters through which we experience pleasure, all the pleasures. Sex and food and running and tickling, laughter and back scratches and massage, intoxication of love or of good wine. I am in good health, able to accomplish what I set out to do of a day without more than slight pains or discomfort. Doing pretty well for a middle-aged woman whose favorite activities are writing, gardening, and cooking.
I am thankful for my body.

When I finished my stretches and my morning meditation, my husband had begun preparing breakfast. I always boil a pot of black tea for myself, as he doesn’t care for it. We had crepes with ham and cheese and apple, and a dash of maple syrup. Then he got on the computer to book hotel reservations and make other arrangements for our upcoming trip, and then we worked together on preparing the Thanksgiving duck. Last night he was working for hours, between research on a project for our house, fine tuning a home improvement project (this required a skill saw that lets him cut a tidy hole in the wall for a new electrical outlet). Before that, he had been supervising the final stages of some work being done in our yard.
I am thankful for my husband.

My life is very abundant. The loving husband and friends and chosen family and biological family are all blessings to me. Though I have never carried to term, I am a beloved auntie and sister-mom to many children, I have worked in schools with many children, I have loved many children. I am surrounded by friends who seek my company. I am surrounded by people who speak and write to me with supportive and kind words, who encourage my artistic endeavors, who inspire me with how they work and play and strive to build a better world.
I am thankful for my community, and the connections within it.

My home is colorful and comfortable. We have quilts on the beds, clothes in the closets, warm curtains against the chill. We have an outdoor space that is green and lovely, with water and earth and space to grow food. We have a kitchen and a living room with space to entertain comfortably, and food enough in the pantry and refrigerator to feed people we like and love. Our soft and lazy felines nap in the sunshine, on our laps, atop stereo speakers and under the kitchen table. They love us, rub against us, talk to us, chide us when the food is late or the box unscooped, and their antics continue to make us laugh down the years.
I am thankful for our lovely house, and for our sweet cats.

Recently I have been writing very prolifically. The ideas and images have been flowing easily to my pen and my screen, and releasing them and arranging them has been giving me great joy. For many years now, I seek the printed word for comfort, whether reading them or writing them. I feel like I am hitting “the zone”, as runners do, as other artists do. The words are friendly and flirty and I handle them comfortably, even when they zip and zing and burn, even when they are as cold and mean as dry ice.
I am so very thankful for the words and for my muse, and for the privilege of crafting with words.

Life is good.
I am grateful for all the blessings Providence has offered to me,
there is abundance in every corner of my life.
I am one of the luckiest people I know.

Thank you, Universe, for your part in this.

Go give some Valentin-y love to your sweeties, your buddies, your crushes.

(no, I don't think I'll sign up for the Valentinr widget thingy this year.

I hope to send notes to at least 3 LJ people per day between now and then... maybe more.

I know a lot of shiney people.

For one thing, we got one of our favorite lecturers back, so that was great.

Then after Recorder and lecture, I went back to the barn with a bunch of people (like 10, we had an alumnus stay over for the night)...

however.
Before we went back to the Barn, we went out to the Bar.
*wry*
I had a suspicion that was what was planned; they've talked of doing this for other Birthday Celebrations, (and it was the Celebration for Mary as well) so I wasn't totally unprepared.

I had already discussed the sobriety-plan before school with my friend Mauricio (who is kinda a pothead, but whatever) and with another friend, and wound up soliciting Joanie and Sarah for support as we were walking up to the door of the bar. Nothing desperate, I was relaxed, but people knowing what's going on with me, felt like it would be more than half the battle. Joanie said, well, I know they serve tea, and I'll just have tea with you.

<3...

So I had Lemon Zinger, and she had Apple Cinnamon, and I talked briefly with the bartender about going for my 30-day chip (which I should be eligible for Wednesday). He was supportive - he asked what was my goal; I need to work more on verbalizing what exactly IS my goal; right now it's an exercise in Will/willpower.

To return to the first bit, both flavors of tea went admirably with the OMG ginger-cake with little BEESWAX birthday candles on top (Yeah, Jessica blew them out and saved them, no surprise here)... the cake was so GOOD and quite honestly unexpected, and I'd had a sniff of Sarah's beer (a new brand for me) and Evangeline's hot toddy (I think it was rum and lemon), so most of curiosity was satisfied...

But the cake? no pun, no lie, that fed me and Fed Me better than any booze would have done. And sharing it and the recognition, was beautiful too. I got a bead bracelet from Willow, a little beeswax taper from... I think it was Sarah, and a teeny little holder for it; a cool 4-in-1 color pencil from Mary, who brought one for everyone, and a handmade card from two more people... Evangeline... and... I need to check. (memory test)

and they sang us (or we sang us, cos I sang also) happy birthday, right there in the pub...

Here's the lyrics to the Waldorf birthday song:

We wish you a happy birthday
A joyous and celebrated birthday
To Our Dear Friend
May you have a joyful life!

We sing it once thru, straight, and then it becomes a round - it's gorgeous, truly.

After we ate and laughed and talked and listened (I need to do some more listening, but I'm not talked out yet...*sigh*) we cleaned up after ourselves and went back to the Barn, where we built a scary-hot fire in the woodstove that stands in the middle of the room (I discovered today that I did indeed singe my scarf-fringe on the stove last night!)... and I put on PJ's, laid out my bedding and Joanie offered to rub my feet. Which was bliss, truly. A light rose-oil scent... and I just relaxed, near enough to the fire to benefit from the light and warm. When she was done, (I hope I expressed my true thanks for the effort!) I put my socks back on, tucked into my bag, and started to doze off, with laughter and conversation nearby and the heat from the stove warming the top of my head.