Quilted Comfort

I love that you treat me like precious cargo.  That you let me be gentle.  You let me let you know that I need someone looking out for me.

The coffee that you make me is good only because you make it.  Even when we are poor and have nothing but instant, it tastes divine because it has been stirred by your hands and perhaps a trick of using more or less water to make it taste better.

I know that you know that my family is a straw man to most people that I talk to. The stories I tell are the handful that I have.The people hearing them don't know that, but you do.

You taught me how to make a bath warmer.  You taught me how to stay warm in the winter time. You taught me most, though not all, of the uses of a hot water bottle.

You taught me patience. You taught me family. You taught me love. You taught me understanding. Flexibility. The complexity of feelings.  The complexity of truths.

You taught me that it is important to bring people *in*.  To make people feel welcome. To make them feel accepted.

You taught me to laugh when life gets too serious.  You taught me to reflect on what I am doing and what I have done. You have forever been encouraging me to see the future in right now.

You know that there are pieces of my story that are missing.  You are patient and careful and slow with these pieces of things. They have edges even I am not aware of.

You taught me humor in the kitchen. Humor on the couch. Humor in the car. You reminded me of how much I love road trips at night. Road trips to the ocean. Road trips to nowhere.

You prepare food intentionally. Slowly.  You taught me that it is something that creates relationships and communities. It's what holds them together. Nourishes them. If there is something to talk about, we can talk about it after dinner.  If there is something to laugh about, we can laugh about it in the kitchen and over dinner.

All of this is patchwork.  Clippings of things I have learned from the people I love.

Sometimes it serves as a beautiful reminder.  To reach inside my heart, and pull a handful of these truths from within it.  To admire them fanned out in front of me upon the floor- a spread of love-  before I tuck them back away in the center my heart for safe keeping.


k.

A song for you, tonight.

(photo: Junya Ishigami, Cuboid Balloon, 2012.)