Goodness I love to swim.
I love slipping through water that is the same temperature as my skin. I love the way a cupped handful of water resists being pushed out of the way. I love the way my body feels, stretched all the way out, rolling in a rhythm, and weightless.
I especially like that my chest is weightless in water. That it stops pulling on my neck and shoulders and getting in my way. That for this interval I get a break from the pain this causes me the other 23 hours of the day.
Aren’t you amazed at what you can produce — for good or ill? The dainty things — the nice turns of phrase, the perfect batch of heart-attack cookies, the accidentally wonderful photograph — these get pinned up for public appreciation right away. But the other things — the smelly, sitcky, somewhat disgusting and embarrassing productions — I usually throw a tissue over those. I imagine you do, too. But they are just as worthy of attention. They, too, have their marvelous qualities.
Take earwax:
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I like the first cup of coffee in the morning.
I like t-shirt sheets.
I like the Boston Red Sox.
I like Bob Dylan’s music.
I like the Beatles, too. And John Prine. I love John Prine.
I like Annie Dillard’s essay, living like weasels.
I like the sound of snow at 15 below.
I like Elmore Mountain glittering the way it looks to me on the way to work in January from up on West Hill, or actually by then it is probably Town Hill.
I like encountering wild things in wild places; I like the way we stop time when we pause and take each other in. Continue reading
I am not the first person to imagine that U-Haul’s tagline, “Adventure in Moving”TM is quite possibly the loudest misfire in American branding. But I bring it up here because I am in the midst of moving, myself, and I could use a chuckle about now.
I hate moving. Adventures or no (and I much prefer NO), moving simply sucks. And I speak with some authority on this question. I have moved twice a year every year since September, 2003. All that’s going to come to a feathered edge pretty soon, though, because I just bought myself a place that I will not have to move out of. I am DONE with landlords, DONE with leases, DONE with not-doing what I want to do with the space I live in 9 months of the year. Continue reading
This Day As-Is 