Write about:

Write about sunshine and mesquite trees heavy with pollen blooms.
Write about plants rooting in new soil.
Write about stars in the western sky popping out of the dusk darkness.

Write about baseball, its rhythms and ballet moves on the mound and infield.
Write about the crack of a bat from the powerful left hander.
Write about kids snacking on ice cream with dad wiping their faces with his t-shirt sleeve.

Write about stories--the bedtime mystery, the afternoon on the patio Irish tales of women gone wrong.
Write about stories--dragons in the sky, Indiana Jones taking a step across the chasm.
Write about stories--fairy tales and Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, and Bible passages.

Write about what is elusive: joy, bliss, peace of mind, quietude--
until I write about all of it.

Wednesday's Win

[the next three "happiest words"]

Joy--gladness, delight, glee, cheer, sunshine, cheefulness (Roget's Thesaurus)

Successful--Last night we watched the movie "The Finest Hours". According to Disney who lost 75 million on the movie, it was not a success.  But we would argue that is was successful to us: it lifted our spirits into the cloudy night, amazed our eyes with its technical beauty, stirred our sense of hope in human perserverance through able acting, and distracted us (successfully) from the political noise on television.

Win--At what age do we learn that to win is better than to lose?  Does it happen before we start school, grades and ranking?  Do we learn it at home from our families, friends?  I am trying to recall when I first sensed that I would not always win (and that winning was happier than losing)--.  My memory goes back to playing jacks with my older cousin, Sarah.

Being older, her fingers and hands were more adept at throwing the ball and scooping the metal pieces into her hands.  I learned that "more" (jacks in hand) were better than fewer and the higher the ball bounced, chances to grab more jacks increased--to a point. But if the ball went too high or too far, all was lost.  I think I was four or five when I learned this.

And I guess I am still learning what it means to win....  Today it means a clean mammogram, results from blood work that need only modest tweaks in medication, and, of course a major win is waking up each morning and being able to breath, move, swim, write.