I went this past weekend down to the Ozarks Amphitheater with friends to see the Avett Brothers perform. As usual, I had mixed feelings about leaving home, even for just one night. I don’t like to leave Miles, who is more clingy than he ever used to be. It looked like it would be hot (91 degrees). And me with another unending headache. In that heat. Those three points. But I love spending time with this group of women.
And what a beautiful experience it was. Just in time, clouds sailed in and the temperature dropped unexpectedly. To everyone’s wonderment, a luscious breeze suddenly filled the whole area. It was perfect. And then the music, filled with love. That word, “love,” sung again and again across a sea of people in the cool breezy evening, could not fail to fill the heart of any person in any state of headache or whatever myriad troubles which of course are present. The first song brought tears to my eyes, thinking of my sons, followed by so many happy, toe-tapping songs that make you want to stand up and jiggle around, even if you’re tired or have a headache, so much joy and love and regard spilling out all over the place. Filled us all up. And looking side to side at my joyful companions, as always, that filled me up more. I am reminded again and again of how lucky I am. I don’t know how or why, but I’ll take it.
So shouldn’t we all say the word “love” whenever possible? Tell it to each other, to our dogs, to ourselves? Say it, tell it, be it, revere it, spread it, revel in it, give it, shout it, write it, sing it, share it? Bake it into cakes, drink cups of it, offer platters of it, sprinkle it over our veggies? Sew it onto our clothes, wear it on top of our heads, wrap it around our shoulders, cradle the babies in it, tuck it into our shoes in the hope that it leads us down all the right paths? Yes yes yes.
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
“Love can rebuild the world, they say, so everything’s possible when it comes to love.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”