A strange day. In some ways a day stranger than even when I flew across the pacific. (I slept better across the pacific.)
I planned on being asleep before this, but I watched a movie that I love instead--and I finished it. I slept all of the morning and significant amounts of afternoon were whittled away between the un-applicable and mundane...and feeding my face. :) (Hawaiian haystacks haven't tasted that way ever before...)
I just looked at my bank account... Funny, that my depleted bank account made me feel so grateful that I thought to write you and tell you how grateful I am to be alive, and to have you in my life. (I'm not asking for money :) I have two paychecks to pick up: One at the store waiting for me, and another to inquire after at the parish.) Life's going to be fine. I guess that's why I'm writing. I'm a new man--a different man than the one that woke up this morning. In all ways (for good or ill) I'm different somehow. Older. ...there must be more to it than being older. I think of Shrek's analogy to Onions as well as a short story I read in AP English about how we grow "tree rings" with every year. All the old is still a part of me, but I've added another layer to myself.
How good God has been to me. I love my family. And my life gives me so many other reasons to be in love with it. It's unfortunate that our days, like our lovers, sometimes have morning breath all day. (Or we recall it all day. One of the two...) We seem to forget the eyes and hair. The touch of skin seems beyond us. I'm glad I had this moment to remember those things.
It's been said that life is like a train ride. Hot, muggy, and sometimes with painfully long delays, but with breathtaking vistas interspersed throughout. I wanted to take this moment to thank the Lord for the ride.
I realize that this waxed far more philosophical than I had planned, and longer than I had intended. Hopefully the message wasn't lost: the thanks and affection. It's humbling and daunting to articulate.
