I know my now-four-year-old-niece loves me, and I know that it’s partially the result of brain washing. Before she was truly old enough to understand the concept of a “best friend” I coached her to list me as hers. I even stole a song and made it our own: Gailey and Tati, Gailey and Tati, Gailey and Tati! The best of friends for life!
All that said, and all that prime training time invested, Gailey-bird is not always very affectionate. I can mostly count on a kiss goodbye, but hugs, and cuddles and the like are hard to come by, except of course, for when she’s absolutely exhausted.
I was reminded of this last week when we visited Disney World for her fourth birthday. I sat next to her during our car ride from Magic Kingdom back to the rental house. After I buckled her into her car seat, she nestled in with a blanket and gave me a kiss on the cheek, unbidden. I told her I loved her and she reciprocated. A few minutes later she was asleep.
Such is her pattern. Fatigue makes her seek comfort, and it melts my heart whenever she finds that in me.
Dearest of readers, I am completely exhausted, as I so often am when I come back to this blog. To be honest, I went on to list all the different things I’m doing and all the reasons why I’m tired and I even confessed that my Disney bags still aren’t packed and I tripped over them when I went to grab my laptop to write this post. It felt too much like complaining though and that isn’t my point. My point is that in all my exhaustion and not enough time, I felt like running into some old standby arms for comfort. I remembered how great this space is for that, to nestle in and spill whatever things have been threatening to spill for a while now. To take a few minutes of better spent elsewhere time and convert it into me and what I want to say time.
I wanted to acknowledge that there are things we turn to when we are tired or vulnerable or when we want to feel safe. Here’s to those things.
Here’s to blogging.
Here’s to Doctor Who on Amazon Prime in bed with boxer shorts on.
Here’s to Phish Food ice cream straight out of the carton.
Here’s to pancakes and pedicures with Penny.
Here’s to a new nail polish.
Here’s to emails to bloggy best friends that always make me smile.
Here’s to a bad movie on Pink’s couch.
Here’s to dancing around Venus and Fetus’s living room.
Here’s to a new book on my Kindle.
Here’s to the box of Zebra Cakes I took to Orlando that definitely did not come home with me.
Here’s to your faces.