those who were seen dancing

Please take a pen and a sheet of paper. Go to the foot of a tree or to your writing desk, and make a list of all the things that can make you happy right now: the clouds in the sky, the flowers in the garden the children playing, the fact that you have met the practice of mindfulness, your beloved ones sitting in the next room, your two eyes in good condition. The list is endless. You have enough already to be happy now. You have enough to no longer be agitated by fear or anger.

—Thich Nhat Hanh in Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions, as quoted by this email practice I get every couple of days.

On my list (which is, indeed, endless) at the moment:
- Mid-atlantic seasons. I like feeling both hot and cold.
- The present-moment-ness of the animals around me
- My wacky parents, who are always a couple of steps ahead of me at understanding this whole life thing. I suspect this is how the whole generation thing is supposed to work.
- Those other family, the ones who choose each other. With a special shout-out to Tara, who gives good love note.
- The people who make art with me. People who make art not with me are also pretty cool. Thanks for doing that, y'all.
- Technology that enables human connections. Whether it's creating and keeping relationships or funny pictures of cats or fundamentally changing the way people think aout other people or playing games with my parents and people I knew in high school or people getting to talk way too much about werewolves and vampires. I love it ALL.
- Human connections that create technology. And, you know, other stuff.
- Color. Man, colors make me happy.
- So, technically my eyes are not in good condition, but the ungoodness of one has led to lots of interesting information gathering, and reminded me how much I love learning.
- Financially having enough. Maybe too much, certainly by global standards.
- Breathing. Not in a snarky way! Breathing is awesome, of course, but awareness of it is also a fantastic tool for perspective.
- My fully-functioning body.
- Cooking without recipes.
- ZOMG EVERYTHING SERIOUSLY MY LIFE IS AWESOME.

How about you?

I did some impromptu research on Hillel this evening. I was thinking about this quote that gets attributed to him - I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing.

In so doing, I came across this, a left coast liberal UU sermon. And I just found it perfectly moving. This, especially: Practice is it. The practice is the dance.

If the success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am or what I do - How would I be? What would I do? (Buckminster Fuller)

I said the other day that I am lucky to have people to try my patience in so many different ways. And it's true - being frustrated and stupid teaches you things. But gah, is it hard.

My peeps are having a big stupid text fight over something that is, in fact, big - but not stupid. They are all right, and I keep ending up angry anyhow.

I would like to take back everything I said - even though I, too, was right - and just all be different and right and patient. It's not that I want no opinions, but that I'd like to passionately defend all of them.