A Love List

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(This post started as a shorter post on Instagram inspired by a few of my writers friend who had done the same. But once I got started I just couldn’t stop thinking of things I love, so I added to it and am giving it a permanent place here. I encourage you to write your own love list. It was a fun exercise. )

I love the way apartment lights pierce gold through navy sky at dusk in Manhattan. I love the way the Bridger mountains turn purple at dusk in Montana. 

I love the nights when the sunset creates a rainbow in the windows of the building kiddy corner from us. 

I love the way my name sounds when my parents or grandparents say it. It sounds like I love you. 

I love the sound of my kids laughing together.

I love walking instead of taking a cab. 

I love having the next concert on the calendar (currently Bon Iver, Aoife O’Donavan, Brandi Carlile, &  John Mark McMillan).

I love our yearly planning day at the end of December. I love looking back at the year that was and looking ahead to the year that will be. I love that Brett *likes* this day too.

I love the way Conor cocks his head, furrows his eyebrows, sticks out his lips, and nods when he’s sure of something. 

I love children’s picture books. I love pulling out a basket of books for each holiday. 

I love Norah’s big questions. I love watching her go from once believing I had all the answers to now wrestling with the idea that there is a lot I don’t know. 

I love watching people find the people they love during a race or at an airport or just as a chance encounter at the grocery store. 

I love how sitting on the back porch of our cabin feels like sitting in a tree house. I love sharing cocktails with friends on that porch on summer nights.

I love baking cookies. Sometimes I love little helpers. 

I love listening to podcasts while folding laundry. I actually love folding laundry. 

I love a championship game. 

I love alphabetizing my spices and displaying my books in rainbow order. 

I love turning the lights out during storms and watching them roll across the city. I love watching storms roll across the valley from my mother-in-law’s front porch in Bozeman. 

I love (to win) board games. 

I love dark beer and light coffee. I love both with chocolate. 

I love the way a heavy snow quiets this city and turns Central Park into Narnia and all of the adults into children who just cracked the door of a magical wardrobe. 

I love realizing I can fall in love with things I never thought I could. Like Marvel movies and art museums and running on vacation. 

I love my hometown. I love my kids hometown. 

I love new businesses in old buildings. I love footsteps echoing through the sanctuary of a Catholic church on a weekday.

I love sitting next to someone speaking a different language so I don’t get distracted by their conversation. I love eavesdropping on conversations at coffee shops when I’m stuck on what I’m writing. 

I love sweaters and jeans and a good pair of boots. 

I love Brett in a suit. 

I love hearing people say what a kind, patient, thoughtful doctor Brett is. I love knowing he’s the same person at work as he is at home.

I love all shades of green. I love all shades of the sky.

I love hiking.

I love the freedom to change my mind. I love hearing people talk about obscure things they’re wildly passionate about. 

I love that Montana, Seattle, and New York City all feel like home. I love Gonzaga. I love the people and the basketball team and the Jesuit philosophy and the campus. I love the little blue house at 407 Nora.

I love finding out two people I know from two completely separate times in my life know each other. 

I love cold, sunny days when you can see your own breath cut through the rays. 

I love a draft latte. 

I love grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. 

I love teachers. I love(d) teaching.

I love our doormen. I love saying hello to the doormen in the other buildings on our walk to school every day. I love that they know our names even though we don’t live in their buildings. I love that we know theirs. 

I love that each season helps us see the same place with new eyes. 

I love a powerful singing voice. 

I love Disney movies. I love that there is a 100% chance that I will cry in them. 

I love puffy vests. 

I love traveling. I love a weekend with just Brett. I love an afternoon with just Norah. I love a morning with just Conor. 

I love that every Thursday after dropping Norah off at choir practice Conor looks up at me with a smile and says, “It’s a Mommy/Conor date. What do you want to do?”

I love cooking soup in the fall and giant salads in the summer and gathering friends around our table to enjoy them. I love Fritos in my chili and ice cream with my cake. 

I love the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I love walking up to get coffee at Joe and tracking our kids growth based on whether they need to sit on our shoulders or if they can see over the rails each year. 

I love twinkly lights on trees and porches and  little kids bedrooms.

I love the way outdoor dining gave this old city something new in the pandemic. I love restaurants that have turned their outdoor spaces into a secret dinner garden in the middle of the sidewalk. 

I love seasonal candles and Ink Joy pens. 

I love remembering that writing begets writing, kindness begets kindness, sleep begets sleep. 

And love begets love.