A pond symphony.
A whistle on a hill.
Crows in the distance.
The silence of a starry night.
Your heartbeat.
The wind through the trees.
Raindrops hitting soft sand.

Ones with pictures.
No batteries required.
Soft leather covers w/clasp.
Hand-made is cool, too.
Ones containing thoughts I've never thought before. Images, insights, enigmas...
Books that tease my few remaining braincells & help me to grow new ones.
Books I find laying on the sidewalk or shoved in odd places.

Breathing.
Collecting driftwood.
Growing old (refining my character).
Popping bubbles, especially my own.
Laughing at myself & others.
Sharing smiles.
Practicing my mistakes.

1) Get a bucket...
2) Think mischievous thoughts...
3) Grin knowingly...

1) I'm a figment of my own imagination (and so are you, btw), a mere sketch mark on the canvas of God's day. Better a sketch mark than a skid mark, right? So we've got that going in our favor at least...

2) Maybe I've read too much Watterson but I can't help but feel that we're living in a cartoon, with our selfish needs & our petty deeds merely run-ups to the punchline in the next frame of Life (at our expense, more often than not). I'm good with that, though, because there are many times that I've felt the gentle caress of the Big Guy's eraser smoothing the sharp edges off of my current predicament or giving me a little more space to feel the repercussions of my latest misadventure. It's nice to know that no matter how bad you F**p-up, there's always tomorrow's strip, as painful as it may turn out to be...

3) After reading 1 & 2, you may feel that I don't take Life very seriously. Don't be misled. Breathing is a serious business... so is peeing if you've ever been blessed with prostrate problems or kidney stones. I've simply found that having a flexible attitude about my environment gives me a little more control over the direction I bounce when the currents of Life throw me towards the rocks. Add a differing perspective & a two-bladed paddle & SHOW ME DEM RAPIDS!!! Hope floats, after all...

4) Oh, and one more thing... Never underestimate the reality of the Turtle. I've been reborn inside a shell so many times that I've lost count! (I'd like to think that's because I'm one of His better designs... but I probably just resemble that remark.) Either way, I appreciate the practice!

5) And if all else fails, remember 1) as many times as necessary...

6) For those who still wonder: The glass is always full! (That being the nature of a glass...) ;-)