five-sense Friday

It's been another big week. I've been...

seeing: Michigan's March trees, their limbs bare and gray and stretching toward the sun, enduring the wind and chill, in hopes of that achy-lovely budding haze of green; the stark interiors of airports, and women eating ice cream inside them, and the vast range of suitcases people pull along; J and E greeting me on my return, my sweet sister-in-law holding a dozen red roses with a smile

hearing: the radio, even the luxury of morning NPR now that my every moment is not occupied by crafting sentences of my own; the quiet of my own empty living room after two weeks with other people in other spaces full of voices and unfamiliar sounds

smelling: those sweet roses; melting snow; coffee at the entrance of a library on Tuesday, such a welcome scent among the stacks

tasting: the simplicity of an egg on toast after days of rich restaurant meals; and those meals! spinach-artichoke dip with large chunks of artichoke and crisp bread, chicken and veggie wrap with goat cheese and herby aioli, thick vanilla yogurt layered with granola and berries in an elegant glass beside thick hot coffee in bone china, pesto ravioli in a sundried tomato cream sauce, fresh guacamole and grilled veggie enchiladas...also, and splendidly, pizza

feeling: the ache of a hovering cold; wildly fluctuating temperatures; relief to be grounded for the next few months; relief to have a decision and a plan; relief in general; hope