what life is like on the other side of big tests: feasting

It's been eight days since I underwent (and passed!) the last element of my week-and-a-day of PhD exams, and I've been thinking about what that means. What have I done since then? I have celebrated with Josh, taught my class with all the usual antics, had dinners and conversations with people I love (including a pizza-party sleepover with some of the dearest friends!), filed taxes, cleaned the apartment (!) ... and I have contemplated, walking from here to there, who I am on this other side of frantic.

Tonight, I am eating cake. It is Texas sheet cake brought by my friend Kacie, who is a hero, to last night's women's storytelling group, where we also consumed pancakes slathered in any number of delicious jams and butters. If I were back in Michigan, it would be Paczki Day. In any case, I am feasting on this Fat Tuesday, lifting forkful after forkful of tooth-tingling chocolatenutsugar to my mouth.

And tomorrow I will awaken to Ash Wednesday, look myself in the mirror, and whisper: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. This Lent, I am hoping to rediscover what it is to live a life of good, quiet rhythms, to breathe more deeply, to stretch my muscles and laugh every day.

Tonight, though, we feast.