Memoir: "I Like..."

Memoir: February 2007

I like...
the smell of the air right before a summer thunderstorm.  I like dew on the grass in May, and I like that breathless moment just before dawn and twilight. I like feather pillows, and amaretto on chocolate ice cream, and being right. I like the smell of horses and newborn babies, and I like a dog's cold wet nose and being able to make a cat purr.  I like candles, and walnuts, and beer, and movies that take me somewhere else, and romance that is impossible and makes no sense.  I like books that push me to the limitations of my intellect, and I like people who like to write.

I like my mother's soft hands, and I still like her lap-- even if I'm 49 and she tells me that my scrawny butt makes her legs fall asleep.  I like seeing the mountains in the distance and knowing that is only the tip of what's there.  I like suddenly coming upon something wild and not having it flee.  I like the smell of corn cobs burning, and bonfires, and gardens that are messy and wild and fertile with magical possibilities.  I like feeling a horse's power beneath me and it's body tremble with restrained energy, and I like it's soft muzzle and it's breath upon my face.

I like being woken up on a spring morning by bird calls.  I like the way my youngest daughter still curls up in a ball when she sleeps.  I like apples and apple trees and standing beneath them to listen to the bees buzz above my head. I like a blanket of snow that's never been stepped upon.  I like autumn leaves and gourds and the feeling that autumn is the end of something...but the beginning of something else.  I like owls, and a shiny bag of marbles, and the smell of new books, and old boots, and tea cups, and incense, and dried flowers, and the color green.

I like old sweaters, and warm feet, and the smell of sage cooking with a turkey.  I like stones and rocks and sea shells and the smell of dirt.  I like being surprised by garter snakes.  I like my strawberry patch, and rolling hills, and music that is sad and far away and takes you to a different time.  I like lavender sachets and men's rough faces and never knowing what's just around the corner.  I love the city spread out before me, and I love country roads that are lonely and endless.

And someday I want to stand on a beach and look at the ocean...so that I can like that too.