I simply remember my favorite things.

Days have slipped by in blogging silence.  Desolee, my sweets.  In the interim between then and now have come finals, food poisoning, miracles, and holidays filled with laughter, merriment and – best of all – lots and lots of reading.

I have flipped through the pages of Tolkien (my first time!) and pondered the emotional life of boys in America.  I have procured, to my great delight, vintage beauties from an idyllic second-hand bookshop in Bountiful and stacked high tomes from the library.  I think I had forgotten this past semester what joy I find in reading.

That got me thinking about some of the other things that are such boons to me:

1. Waking up to NPR.
2. Falling asleep to NPR.
3. Ira Glass' infinite Ira-Glass-iness.
4. Making things.  
5. Giving (humble) gifts.
6. Writing letters... real letters!

My list is decidedly more pedantic than Maria's cat whiskers and brown paper packages tied with twine.  But, still.  

I'm not one to really make New Year's resolutions, if only because calling them such dooms them to failure.  I am, however, one to readdress priorities.  And so, I will say this:  I have found much value in pausing and engaging in those things that bring me stillness and fullness; this year – and, hopefully, much longer than that – I will place a higher priority on items that seem to continually get pushed to the bottom of the list in favor of the much more pressing, and stillness-snatching, idle to-do's.