These Happy Golden Days

Spring break is half over, more than half. But oh, every single second of it has been wonderful.

Yesterday I spent the morning working on revisions on a book suggested to me by an editor who just might publish it. More on this possibility when and if it is finalized, but let me just say that this was the manuscript on which I had the fairy dust sprinkled back in January at Alice's Teacup. And let me just say that the revisions are going to make the book vastly and incomparably better. They are going to be truly brilliant revisions.

While I made them I ate a Pepperidge Farm apple turnover. I wanted to eat all four in the box, I love them so much, and it seems such a waste to preheat the entire oven to 450 degrees for just one, but I resisted temptation.

Then I walked for almost two hours on the mountain trails by my house with my friend and intrepid walking buddy, Rowan. The new-fallen snow was deep. The walk was difficult and exhilarating. A few weeks ago, Rowan gave me as a present a pair of trekking poles. She has a set, too. So we strode along through the snow, each with our pair of poles. Our conversation went like this, "Isn't this beautiful?" "Can you believe that we live in such a beautiful place?" "Look at the shadows on the snow!" "Look at the trees covered with snow!" "Remember last spring when there were wild flowers everywhere?" "Remember how in the fall the grass was so golden?" "Isn't this beautiful?" "Isn't this beautiful in the snow?"

Then back at home I gulped down some lunch and hurried off to meet at a local cafe with a philosophy department grad student. Together we planned out his dissertation and, for good measure, the rest of his life. Very satisfying!

Then I came home and wrote my poem for poetry boot camp and emailed it to my fellow boot campers, a poem inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem that begins, "I can wade grief, whole pools of it." My poem was about not wading through grief, but wallowing in it, but I have to say, I haven't had any grief to wallow in for ages, well, at least since spring break started.

Christopher's fiancee Samantha made incredibly delicious macaroni and cheese for dinner, with all different kinds of cheeses in it - gruyere, gouda, some gourmet cheddar. After dinner I read a few chapters for one of my mentees and thought of exactly what her book needs to bring it to complete and total greatness. And then I went to bed.

Sometimes I've been afraid that I might be struck down by some hideous ailment, and the whole rest of my life from that point on might be miserable, and I would have failed to have noticed and celebrated my last happy day. Just for the record, I am now paying attention. Whatever happens for the rest of my life, yesterday was a perfectly happy day.