sock and soul

Savor and gather.

Gather and savor.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Savor some more.

Then twist.

Savor that. How not?

Oops — time to gather.

Now —meander to the plums.

Bring a bag.

Remember Aesop’s Ants.

And never forget Frederic.¹

Chop the wood. Then relish the fire.

Try to embody the balance between the practical—

— and the ephemeral—

—without losing the magic of either.

Or wearing yourself out.

Cleaning ducts does not have to be enchanting.

Turning ideas into ink usually is.

Remember that yarn holds lots of stories.

And when you run out of actual words, make one up.

See The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows² for examples.³

In the meantime, rack your brains for a way to describe the fleeting bliss of a giggling nine month old with canine companions—

—and the pleasure of choosing milkweed on an October afternoon when there are things clamoring to be done but you don’t, at that moment, care a bit.⁴

Or ask your friends.

Remember to comment with the button above rather than by hitting reply, for if you choose the latter I won’t see your lovely words— canonical or invented.

And if you know anyone who might enjoy these meanderings, please do click the button below and see what they think!

1. Frederick by Leo Leoni

2. I learned about The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig from my father, and am interrupting the writing of this draft of The Gusset to walk with Beryl down to the fabulous local bookstore, Bookpeople, to get a hard copy.

3. liberosis: n. the desire to care less about things; to figure out a way to relax your grip on your life and hold it loosely and playfully, keeping it in the air like a volleyball, with quick and fleeting interventions, bouncing freely in the hands of trusted friends, always in play.

Italian libero, free. A libero is a position on a volleyball team that can move at greater liberty than other players, subbing freely and without permission, with an emphasis on keeping the ball in play. Pronounced “lib-er-oh-sis.”

suerza: n.a feeling of quiet amazement that you exist at all; a sense of gratitude that you were even born in the first place, that you somehow emerged alive and breathing despite all odds, having won an unbroken streak of reproductive lotteries that stretches all the way back to the beginning of life itself.

Spanish suerte, luck + fuerza, force. Pronounced “soo-wair-zuh.”

galagog: n. the state of being simultaneously entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the cosmos, which makes your deepest concerns feel laughably quaint, yet vanishingly rare.

From galaxy, a gravitationally bound system of millions of stars + agog, awestruck. Pronounced “gal-uh-gawg.”

4. The Blue Scissors (in case you’re curious), are from the marvelous entity that is Tatter