"He is an odd duck, though. I was hanging up a watch and he leaned his cheek down to my face and pushed my lips on his cheek- and I rolled my eyes at him, and I swatted him away. He started skipping around the store, singing, 'I got a kiss! I got a kiss from the prettiest girl in schoooooool!"
First things first, los amigos: this is going to be a real post. True blue, scouts honor--a real post.
I'm really kicking around as far as posting goes. I've gone and started this and then, in four days, run out of things to write about. I have a journal; it's made of paper and I write in it with the ink of ballpoint pens. I like it that way. And so I can't turn my blog into my journal; that's just a bunch of double journaling. And I'll be bored, and you'll be able to tell.
A funny thing did happen tonight, though, that prompted some different ideas. I found a note on my floor that had fallen out of my journal (the real live one), picked it up and read it and did a little bit of reminiscing. A little bit. Then, I opened up my journal with the intent of finding the page it belonged to and replacing it- but the thing about journals, when they're kept well enough, is that it's hard to open to a random page and suppress the want to read it.
And so I read it.
And I liked what I read so much that I thought...maybe I wanted to share it. So, I did. And I thought, maybe, if I started every post this way- maybe I'd have some things to write.
I can place the watch; I can place the store; I can place his tone of voice; I can imagine how far he had to stoop to get his cheek anywhere near mine, and I remember the all-around silliness that ensued on that evening of our graduation day. I can see the rain, and hear its heaviness and I remember how upset I was that the car paint done by my brother and sister was lost in fifteen minutes.
I remember the Shirley Temple that was placed in front of me at Chili's and the smiles all around at the way Daisy Kennedy always ordered Shirley Temples; I remember the urgency of the man who rushed us out because there was a kitchen fire and I remember the way I stood in the ice cream parlor in my graduation dress, shielding it as best I could under my wet blue hoodie.
And then I remember how happy I was, and how sure I was that I'd never trade those things for anything in the whole world. Because, I had people I loved with me and they loved me back. And when it boils right down to it, the people in our lives are the most important things we have. Were we to lose them, somehow, forever...a lot of other things wouldn't matter anymore.
Sometimes all it takes is the knowledge that we are loved;
Sometimes it takes a smile or a moment of laughter.
Sometimes, it takes a raincloud, and a thunderstorm
To remind us how precious the Sunshine is.
