# I LIKE . . . #I'D MISS . . .

My Box of Ideas

Writing prompts:  I've written about them before ("The Best List Ever," 9/7/18; When Do you Feel Best about Yourself," 2/8/19; "Investing in Yourself," 7/23/19).  Out of my box of ideas that I keep I found a prompt that I had responded to well before the coronavirus.  Before you read on, you may want to follow this prompt yourself.  Here it is.  "I like . . . ," then make a quick list.  Just jot down what you like. 

I can tell that I wrote my list quickly.  After all, what I put first was "colored glass."  Not my family, not my job (by the way, almost no one ever lists their job first, no matter how important it is to them.  Maybe having a job, but not the job itself.)  Not even my hair, which I've always liked because that's how my mother raised me.  She was a huge giver of praise.  

Here's the rest of my list, a real hodge-podge:
colored glass
soft sweaters
cedar trees
warm PJs
dragonflies

hummingbirds
my rain-filled creek
waking up in the morning
good books
being snowed in
an open fire
feeling loved
biking at the beach
shutting down for the night
shoes  
going to the theater

What surprised me today, the beginning of Week 9,  is that out of that whole crazy-quilt of choices [bit embarrassed about the "shoes" entry], the only thing not available to me now is "going to the theater." 

How did your list come out?  If you're not front-line, are most of the things you like still available to you even during shut-down, wearing a mask, or social distancing?  We had a brief Mother's Day cook-out for our local family--one grandchild, mom and dad.  We stayed outdoors 6 feet apart and shared nothing but conversation and laughter.  I hope your day was good too.


Here's another prompt I found in my box:  "Take a moment to think about what your partner is doing and what you might have started taking for granted over the years.  Imagine what it would be like if your partner were gone, or if you had never met.  What would you miss?"  A good prompt, yes?  It wouldn't have to be confined to a partner, but I wrote my response as if I were saying it to my husband.

Your humor
Your kindness
The care you show for me
Your love
Your intelligence
Your special words
Sharing our days, our nights, our home, our past, our present, our future, our faith, our hopes, our griefs, our grandchildren . . . 

All these are still available too.  And if one of us should die, as each of us will some day, these things would still have been true.  They would have made up our life together.   

So we're each continuing to live our lives aren't we?  We hold on when we need to, we let go when we need to, we work on keeping our balance in these days.  Thank you for reading.           
                                           Nina Naomi