Ten.Forty-Two

1. It is still dark. I go to each of them and kiss their cheeks.

2. The car is here a little early and I'm still scrambling to make sure they have paper towels and toilet tissue and cash for groceries.

3. Deep gratitude for them showing up and being here so that I could have this time away.

4. Airport fashion. 

5. The way the clouds look like cotton balls planted in very neat and tidy rows.

6. Pieces of the earth cut up into rectangles and circles.

7. The greenish hue of the bay. How when I cross over it I think of how cold the water must be on a day like today.

8. This is everything. 

9. Sometimes you get to live out pieces of your dream and trust that the holes will fill themselves in when ready.

10. The water at my toes, and then over my feet, and then over my ankles, and then just below my calves. How I giggled when the bottoms of my pants got wet. Feathers and driftwood and plants from the sea. Hot sand. Blue sky. Vanilla milkshake after a cheeseburger with peppery bacon. All the children laughing. This is everything.