“There is some kiss we want with

our whole lives, the touch of

spirit on the body. Sea water

begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately

It needs some wild darling! At

Night, I open the window and ask

The moon to come and press its

Face against mine. Breathe into

Me. Close the language-door and

Open the love-window. The moon

Won’t use the door. – Rumi

Last weekend, while at the beach, we had a moment that we both label as magical. Xing Fu has a few of them that he likes to talk about & this one is on both of our lists. We went up to the boardwalk in Rehobeth to get Thrashers & hot dogs.   We decided to sit on one of the benches up by the ocean. As we were sitting there, all of a sudden a little paw appears between the dune & the boardwalk. I get up & look between & there's a little tabby kitten (a lot like the one pictured above). He was just sitting there so I decided to feed him some of my polish sausage. I break off a piece & hold it out to him--his little paw swipes quickly like a piston & snags the meat out of my very surprised fingers. He looked very healthy--eyes clear, coat shiny, ears clean, so obviously I wasn't the only sausage donor. I continued to offer pieces of the sausage & he wouldn't allow me to hand it to him--I had to place it on the edge of the boardwalk but after he'd consumed each piece, his little face would pop up looking for more. Piston paw each time until there was nothing left. Then, it was as if he knew that it was all gone because when I looked over the edge, he's disappeared just as he'd appeared--I imagined him curled up in the sun somewhere licking his paws for the last taste of the sausage. It was a small snippet of our time at the beach together but I have to agree with Xing Fu--it was magical because it unfolded only for us--our own shared memory. Just like the pieces of shell with the purple insides that I collect every time I go to the beach.

We've had a few "magical memories"--Xing Fu recalls evenings at concerts that he found particularly noteworthy--Nada Surf when first we went to Full Kee for dinner, & arrived just as the band came on & then he caught the drum stick as we stood watching. Another one he remembers is the night we saw Telesma at Sonar with Alex Gray painting his special brand of psychedelia.

I remember being down in North Carolina the night before we dropped my kid off at camp--we stood at the edge of the water on the dock of a marina, watching the water ripple & the moon reflect off of the masts of sailboats & the still water. The feeling of peace that night was just amazing.

Magical Moments--we have quite a few--I like that he remembers these & refers to them often--bringing us yet closer--like our kitten.

And so I come to another "blogoversary". I take these posts as a refection point from the previous year. A "where am I now?" kinda thing. So where was I & where am I now?

Last year:
It has also been quite amusing to see the dating blunders I've written about--I think ultimately when I do find the right one it will be fun to go back & revisit it all from time to time just to appreciate the journey.

Overall I am happy with what I've experienced--a lot I would never have lived through if I were still married--it has been quite the adventure & I'm looking forward to many more along the way--

My commentary for this year (certainly my blog focus has changed quite a lot):

Have I found "the one"? How can I think otherwise when we were getting ready for work this morning & he bursts into "Happy Blogoversary, Happy Blogoversary..." So, I think so--certainly this time last year I was still filtering through the frogs for the prince. Is Xing Fu my prince? It certainly has been a dream of a romance--even today, with emails flying back & forth between us, he writes the most loving notes to me. One phrase that he says to me often is most probably one of my favorites: "Are you as wonderful as I think you are?" How can a woman not melt when she hears that? I am a lucky woman that this wonderful man has chosen to be my partner--I hope next year I can write the exact same thing.