December 3 Advent Gratitude

Today was sleety and wet. I took the morning off work, mostly in the kitchen, cleaning and folding laundry. It was a real pleasure to be off screen and in my body, moving around in the warm, while outside the windows the rain poured down. In the garden goldfinches and great tits took turns at the bird feeder. Sometimes the green parrots stopped by, sitting on the empty magnolia branches, watching.

In the afternoon I had a video call with my beloved friend Diane in California. While we talked, I watched her put on her make-up, getting ready for her day. The gestures and setting were familiar and intimate.

Diane and I only lived together for two years in our mid-twenties yet her life has been woven alongside mine ever since, our stories intertwined, each one burnished and strengthened by the other. We have shared significant milestones and also numberless moments of casual intimacy.

Today I am grateful for that lifelong friendship and for the technology that allows us to be in the same space together, 10,000 miles apart.