IKEA, 10 minutes in heaven, Boils, Gifts.

 Lunch time. Monday. Ten minutes in heaven. Go!

I’m extremely excited, because this is my last week before vacation! Woo! I’ll get two whole weeks off, and we’ve got a whole bunch of really fun things planned, starting with a road trip back to Fairfield, where I’ll get to play with my friends.

This last week is totally focused on the performance the students are doing on Friday, which will be a nice little send off, not just for them, but for me. Though they’ll have an extra week after I leave, which will be very little work getting done, I assume, much more play focused.

Yesterday, me and Suzannah went to IKEA, something she did as a birthday present to me. She has been overwhelming in her generosity for this birthday, making all sorts of special foods, arranging little gatherings with friends and family, making me sweet cards and getting me sweet gifts (games we can play together). And more, and more. I’m used to birthdays being pretty underwhelming, and most of my birthdays, until more recently, have generally been kind of down times for me, where I reflect on my life and feel bad about where I am. So it was kind of hard to parse the overflow of gifts in various forms that I was getting from her.

She is a very good wife, a very good best friend, a very good person.

And so this birthday, as we lay in bed chatting and cuddling, I could only reflect that all the main things I had been sad about in previous birthdays, had changed. What I was wishing forlornly to have, I now have.

There’s always further to go, and my next horizon is work that feels really good, but that was never my primary goal. It was first and foremost somebody to love, and be loved in return. And then later on, Enlightenment, which intellectually usurped first place, but probably stayed in second place, emotionally.

Our 10 minutes in heaven are almost over. I continue to feel the emotional stamina and hope and determination carrying over from the weekend healing class, though the initial buzz has long since worn off.

I have a giant boil on my leg from one of the weird, hard-ish, super itchy mystery bits I got all over me a few days ago (and kept getting, for a few days.) one of them got too much friction from my sock, and went from bite to huge boil. Apparently you’re not supposed to drain them if you can help it, the skin keeps infection out, while the skin underneath is healing, protected by the layer of skin and fluid. Our bodies are pretty cool and smart about self-healing.

I’ll see some of you when I’m in Fairfield next week, drop me an email if you’re interested in having tea some time.

Love, be well,

-Isaac