a few of my favorite things...

anyone who knows me

knows

i.am.not.a.things.kind.of.person.

i

am

an

if.it.lives.and.breathes.kind.of.person.

however,

there are a few things i love.

~@~

i love...

flannel pajamas

hard-wood floors

ralph lauren tee shirts

double-dutch doors

violets and daisies
most all wild flowers
thick soft towels
long warm showers

my haflinger house shoes

abercrombie flip flops

my black madden sandals

i don't wear crocks

my johnny cash boots

my weekender jeans

my ribbed black turtleneck

and a few more things...

marzetti's honey mustard
heinz 57
nutella on most anything
tastes like heaven

diet coke from mcdonald's

with a fat straw

reese's cups and snickers

that's not all

mint chocolate chip ice cream

two scoops in a cone
martin's photography
pictures taken with my phone

ray ban sunglasses
paul sebastian's design
my pandora necklace
a good bottle of wine

fructis and secret
skintimate and crest
new sharp razors
venuses are best

cascade and dawn
downy and tide
bounty and charmin
the squeezable kind

my jeep commander
the one that guzzles gas
my john deere tractor
mowing the grass

floating in the pool

writing in bed

watching cnn

or breaking bad instead

when maggie snores

when a bell rings

when i'm feeling well

these are a few of my favorite things

love and God's blessings,

dani xxx

sanctity of the lane...

for many reasons,

i have always treasured

my life on the lane...

especially in the spring

and summer.

when the flowers and trees

are in full bloom,

the lane looks much like

an original,

thomas kinkade

painting.

the lane is also a bit enchanted...

we have deer,

squirrels,

foxes,

raccoons,

opossums,

groundhogs,

moles,

turtles,

owls,

bats,

and

birds...

lots of birds. 

what i've always 

treasured most

though

are my next-door neighbors,

the davis'.

when i moved here 

as a little girl

with my parents,

jack and stella quickly became
my best friends

(even though i was only nine

and they were in their sixties.)

i remember in the summers

anxiously 
watching out the living room window

or them to arrive home from work.

i got so giddy 

when i saw their woody station wagon

 pull into their driveway.
like clockwork, 
the two got out of the car,

stella went in to start supper, 
and 
jack headed to his garage.

as soon as i saw jack 
sitting in his lawn chair.

i ran over to 

"play."

when he saw me coming,
he stood and 

grabbed an extra lawn chair for me.
"dani, sit down here with me!"
he would say.

we sat and watched 

sanford and son

almost every afternoon together.

although i was only a mere fourth-grader,

 jack talked to me like i was grown.

i liked that!
we talked about school,
politics, family, money,
bb guns, gardening, 
etc...

when stella saw that i was there,

she brought jack and me

Coca-Cola
or sweet tea

poured over ice

in ball jars.

she handed us our drinks 

and then dried her hands on her

apron.

stella was beautiful.

(stella.is.still.beautiful.)

she always had her hair

fixed.

and...

whether she was dressed 

for church

or

in shorts, a polo,

tennis shoes,

and apron,

she looked like

a model-modern-housewife-and-mother.

she never failed to ask me about my day.

i remember trying to come up

with a good tale

because i loved, loved, loved

to hear her reply,

"well, good grief!"

it reminded me of charlie brown

and always made me giggle.

she then usually returned to her kitchen

to continue preparing dinner.

jack and i sipped

our drinks

(well, jack took swigs of his 

after each spit of tobacco;)

all the while watching 

 fred sanford

grab his shoulder 

and tell his late wife,

elizabeth,

he was coming to join her.

jack could imitate fred
to a t, 
which also made me giggle.

after a while,

mom would holler 

for me to come home

for dinner,

and

stella called jack in as well.

~@~

many nights

after we ate supper

mom allowed me 
to rejoin them in their backyard..

i don't know if i was a bother to them,

but if i was,

they never made me feel like it.

there were no other children on the lane.

they were all i had.

they were 

all i needed.

i.loved.them.

~@~

when i was little

we never took summer vacations.

but,

that was okay

because jack and stella didn't either.

my jack

preached the sanctity of the lane...

he would scoot to the front of his lawn-chair

expand his arms as wide as he could

as if presenting something  really special

and rhetorically ask,

"why would we want to 

go anywhere else

when we have everything we need

right here?"

 i would look at him,
he had a sparkle in his eye.
grin,
and think to myself,

"why?" indeed!

love and God's blessings,

dani xxx

i think he knew the way...

the first week of april always brings

about 

in me

a flood of memories

of 

a

most precious time in my life.

for

it was time spent with gary

in the days leading up to his

journey

home.

~@~

on several occasions

(first here and again here)

i've shared

the story of his death...

it.was.beautiful.

it was raw,
but,

yes...
oh.yes.

beauty full.

~@~

God's presence

was as dense and expansive

as the fog that hovered over

lake misty

on those last, cool,
april mornings
of gary's

life.

gary lived most of his life

admittedly 

without God in it.

but once he allowed

God in...

GOD
NEVER
FORSOOK
HIM!

GOD
also took 
great care of those of us
surrounding gary.
HE made sure to include
us in the details 
of HIS plan for gary.
HE
knew
we were watching
and
HE
didn't want us to miss a thing.
HE
knew
we would witness
to what we saw.
HE
knew
HIS HOLY SPIRIT
would not let us forget
a single,
important
detail
of gary's story.

i've written
(in the aforementioned places)
about the most important
details.
but there are others i have
of the time leading up to gary's
departure.

like...

when gary told me i needed
to see
remember the titans
and
gladiator.
he also told me
to listen to
the song,
time marches on...
that it's true,
it does, indeed, march on.

like...

when we were on our way
to buy new sheets and a comforter
for gary's hospital bed,
linda asked me what
i thought 
GOD
 was going to do.
and i answered
i didn't know
but it was going to be something
BIG
and i'd known 
that much
from the very moment 
of gary's diagnosis.

like...

when i left the house
that morning to go run errands
for linda...
while gary lay dying,
this song was on the radio...
(you should listen to the very end)




on a station to which
i didn't recall setting
my tuner.

like...

when i was reading the end of gary's book
to him,
there was a character named "violet"
and that our yard was literally 
full of violets 
when we returned home 
to prepare for his funeral.
and that in those few pages i read to him
before he
 left us
there were the two words,
rouge
and
arroyo,
in the text...
(the only words missing 
from the last crossword puzzle 
gary would finish
the night prior).
and how i paused and smiled
when i came to them in my reading.

like...

when john's sister-in-law
said
everyone was there 
when she saw gary's 
youngest sister's family
pull into his driveway...
and gary heard and believed
it was, finally, okay to
go.

like...

when gary's puppy, max,
went crazy as the backdoor opened
releasing gary's spirit
from the house.

like...

when gary's brother
headed back up to the house
(not knowing gary was gone)
saying he felt what he believed to be
gary's spirit brush by his face.

~@~

i remember all those things
and more...

love and GOD's blessings,
dani xxx