birthday, early morning, life

*I had the happiest, happiest birthday ever I had for a long time--and so simple it was.

Museums in the morning. Sitting on a sun warmed bench in the afternoon until my bottom was numb and my nose was cold. Then up the stairs to the San Francisco Grill for a Cobb salad to eat at a table by the window. We sat looking out until the still entangled Christmas lights of the Plaza were turned on. We walked back to the hotel to read in bed.

*We woke at the same time and walked out into the dark, under the arcade to buy some coffee. The Plaza was deserted, the arcade also. Our shoes counted out rhythm on the cold bricks. Coffee. Then into the car through the Sunday sleeping city of pinon smells and animal eyes glowing in the dark and crisp air.

*Life isn't about

waiting

for the storm

to pass,

it's about

learning

to dance

in the rain.