One!
☆ May 20, 2010
Cleaning out my inbox during the hot part of the day, I was about to delete several memes (me, me’s ?) that have accumulated, but before saying “adios” to all, I decided to post one here, and do it. It asks for: seven things about myself, previously unknown to everyone else. Here goes ~
1. I love algebra. I experience a visceral thrill when an application, in life, arises that requires a moment of algebra. I absolutely delight in doing algebra. I dislike calculators (though I do like pressing the buttons) and pretty much always do all math longhand.
2. . . . . . . … .. ….
Well, I tried. There’s one thing. And some Indian Paintbrush.
Now leave ME one thing about YOU in the comments!
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349 Responses to “One!”
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May 20th, 2010 @ 2:56 pm
Despite everything, I wouldn’t go back an change a thing.
May 20th, 2010 @ 2:58 pm
I love sweeping, Give me a huge patio or deck covered with pine needles and I am in heaven.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:03 pm
I love swimming pool pump rooms and all of the intricacies involved with running them :)
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:04 pm
I am not as good of a person as people think.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
If you love algebra, then you must love fractals. Fractal algebra determines sea shells, leaves, flowers … sooo many things in nature are MATH. :)
I love quiet .. for mankind and his presence to be silent so I can enjoy the sounds and sights of nature around me. Too much noise, too many lights. Can’t see or hear the world that surrounds us.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:09 pm
i absolutly love to roll pennies. i go into some sort of trance counting them out and sliding them into their paper tubes.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:10 pm
I regret not going to school to be a nurse…I know that I still could go at age 52, but it would be alot harder. I am always the first at accident scenes, the first to wipe blood up or stitch up someone or something with my needle and thread, but just goofed off and never went to school. Stupid, stupid me!
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
I love percussion. I think it is because I have NO rhythm of my own.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
I love pottery – want a handmade bowl?
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
I always wanted to be Jane Goodall.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:23 pm
I love mowing grass using a scythe. The hypnotic step-swish, step-swish as you move along, the falling grass, the clanging when you sharpen the blade, it all evokes a feeling of being connected to something that is ages old and incredibly grounding.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
My dream is to be a travel planner.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:31 pm
I love giving gifts!! And I give them whenever I want because you just don’t know what the next minute will bring!
Every day is Christmas with me…Life is too short to “save” things or feelings!
And I am one of those who invites all the wildlife into my yard,,the rabbits, the raccoons, the possum, the chipmunks, the ducks, deer, birds. While my neighbors complain about all their plants and flowers being eaten, I just sit on my deck and enjoy the animals finding happiness in my yard, a safe haven from the speeding cars.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
Going to bed before the sun and getting up before it rises suits me perfectly. The thought of doing the opposite gives me chills.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:35 pm
I hate the idea of doing dishes, and always put it off, but once I get going, I enjoy it… staring out my kitchen window into the backyard, watching the lizards and hummingbirds, and swirling dish water in a pot with a sponge, it’s pretty meditative.
I also love language and grammar and spelling and writing and words, and the way typed text looks on a page. But I have HORRIBLE hand writing.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
Previously unknown… hmmm,
I talk to plants and am pretty sure they are at least listening.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
The above website is in process – please bear with it!
As to something about me – Only one?
I love my work as a Massage Therapist…There is hardly anything else to me that is as satisfying as seeing a person come through the door with tension, stress, or pain & walking back out completely transformed. I also have the opportunity to not only make a living at what I love – but to be a part of someone’s healing journey and that is a gift I hold dear to my heart.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:41 pm
i love hanging clothes out on the line…..go figure….
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
Casey ~ I emailed you directly. We’re actually on the same page. I deleted your comment because it’s totally off topic to the thread. (Anyone can see my comment policy here:
http://honeyrockdawn.com/contact/)
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
Absolutely Lovely!
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
I love cherry pie filling. I could eat it straight from the can – and I don’t generally eat a lot of canned things. Cherry pie filing is the exception. And it’s such a pretty color.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:49 pm
Well, I don’t love algebra….in fact I detest math…..hate it. What I love is the unconditional love that my animals give me. They love me (and I love them) no matter what.
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
I smell of dog food always makes me feel calm and comforted. :)
May 20th, 2010 @ 3:55 pm
I’m an introvert and I’m shy. But not many people know that about me. I ignore my natural instincts and meet people etc. Someone argued that I’m not actually an introvert or shy because I don’t act like it. Go figure.
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:04 pm
I sing to my cat
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:04 pm
I was once peed on by a male lion at the zoo. Apparently, taking pictures offended him. You think cat pee smells bad?? HA!
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:15 pm
I thought about a lot of things but I’ll give you this: I love the sound that windshield wipers make.
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
I am older and weird, a sudoku freak, I count in my head, I see the equations in front of me, our teachers in Europe trained us that way. I use a pencil and write -ad nauseam- all my expenses in an accountant ledger,and I mean EVERYTHING is written down. Every month I look at it, it is the only way I feel in control of my spending and my reality. I never watch TV, I stare at the Mohave desert and see coyotes, rabbits, snakes, lezards,spiders, bob cat, road runners, quails, buzzards, hawks scorpions and big horn sheep, owls, bats and sometime, rarely, humans…
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
I love astronomy and cosmology and optics and quantum physics and everything to do with space science! If I were’nt a stay-home mom with 4 boys, that’s what I would be doing. But since I’m so busy with my big family, I watch Discovery Channel and fiddle with my little telescope and DREAM!
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
I’m fairly intelligent, an engineer making a good salary designing incredibly complex products, BUT sometimes I’d rather be the stock girl at Nordstrom making $9 an hour. I loved that job!
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
I love to play a silly game called backgammon. It’s so addicting. I think I play to vent and keep a sense of balance or perspective. I’ve played at least one game every day since one summer’s day in 1974. It’s a game of luck, I suppose, but there is skill in managing the luck. I play to win but I don’t mind losing. You learn much in life by losing (or failing), picking yourself up off the ground, and moving forward. I am a bit sad if I win OR if I lose. I guess it’s because the adrenaline rush is over, regardless. I just enjoy the journey sooooo much.
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:40 pm
I love filing. It’s such a stupid, tedious, mindless task that everyone hates, but I adore it because it’s mindless :)
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:44 pm
I love vultures and ravens. I love to watch them floating on the air. Ravens always look like they are having so much fun. I also love javelina – their snorting, their purring, and their musky scent.
May 20th, 2010 @ 4:48 pm
I hated having to mow the grass when I was younger, but now I love it. It gives me a reason to tune out the rest of the world and just concentrate on walking in a straight line.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:00 pm
I have never met a wild flower that wasn’t beautiful. I think that’s a double negative.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:06 pm
When I see a love scene on the TV or in a movie, I always close my eyes when the couple is kissing… feels like I’m intruding.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:13 pm
I love the smell of rain on concrete after a dry spell.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:14 pm
I like things to be pretty and smell nice. I’m always shocked when I realize some people just don’t care about those things.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
I miss home, and my family.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:23 pm
i need a math tutor for my son…interested?
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:28 pm
Sometimes when I am on the subway, I imagine what it is like to love each person on the train. It’s a way to study them in an appreciative, intimate way. Other times, I purposefully bump into people who crowd onto the train as I am trying to get out.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
Whenever I see something that’s not optimal, I automatically want to fix it.
I was totally born to fix things.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
I absolutely love volunteering my time at my daughter’s school or with Girl Scouts…I would have to say, though, my all time favorite thing though is my job, I substitute teach and I opt to work in the special ed rooms. I love when they see me at the beginning of the day and they give me a huge hug and say “Mrs. H!!! We missed you!!!” Nothing can make your day like a smile from a child and hug!!!
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:38 pm
I love my breasts.
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:42 pm
I think it would be fascinating to work with a search and rescue dog. Alas, my canine is a miniature schnauzer with phobias about bells, thunderstorms, airbrakes, beeping, and bugzappers ( I love her anyway! ).
May 20th, 2010 @ 5:45 pm
I love the sound of fog horns at night. It puts me right to sleep.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:03 pm
I love puppy breath (is coyote breath similar?). If it could be bottled, they’d really have something there.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
I have dreams so strange that there are no words in the English language to describe them.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
My family is extremely close and as much as I love them all I think I could live the life of a hermit with only my books and dogs for company..
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
The people in my life perceive me as not being afraid of anything. In truth, I’m afraid of everything.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:22 pm
I love watching lightning. In the summer in GA we get fantastic heat storms. I love to sit out on the porch and watch the lightning.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:22 pm
When I have trouble sleeping, I imagine how to better decorate a room (not always ones in my own house either).
Snarles, I enjoy the smell of dog food too. When I was at school I’d go down the pet aisle just to smell the kibble and rawhide to feel a little bit closer to my dog.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:25 pm
I love animals, especially dogs. The collective suffering of animals weighs heavily on me and I desire to help them all. But at the end of the day I go home to the one I could save, and we dance :)
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:27 pm
Two things I love – I love to pull weeds by hand in my garden when they are just barely peeking out and I love the head butts my cat Screech gives when greeting me.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:28 pm
I love running and playing in the rain. Sure it can be a bother when you have somewhere nice to go and you did your hair all pretty but as soon as you step outside it turns into a giant frizz ball and then you curse the rain for ruining your hair. (I have curly hair and live in Florida) :P But when you have no where to go, playing in the rain makes you feel like a kid again.
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:35 pm
I almost always have a song playing in my head (if not on my iPod).
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:37 pm
I love the Indian Paintbrush! Most likely no-one knows I say hello to all the animals and birds I see on my commute to and fro each day! Very rural living and work in a city, so truly appreciate all the critters of the world and their journey in life!
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:39 pm
~Zombies! I love zombies. And zombie books (The Zen of Zombie rocks!) and old zombie movies.
~Reading my husband’s Scientific American subscription. …uuuuuuh, nerd porn…
May 20th, 2010 @ 6:50 pm
I am a sucker for anyone selling honey…at farmer’s markets, at roadside stands, fairs, etc…if they’ll offer it for sale, I’ll buy it everytime!
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
I am 33 years old and I own 27 boxes of crayola crayons. I can not pass them up. Back to school season is the worst.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:08 pm
Birdy, your comment cracked me out loud, and I was in a meeting while reading it :)
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
I love the smell of stables, and would gladly spend all day mucking out stalls just to be around the horses.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
Just one thing? LOL
I love doing laundry. I love cleaning(on my own terms) I love driving. I hate math. I prefer reading over TV. I wish I had been an only child.
I love my job, and the people I work with.
I have illegal chickens in my back yard.
And. I am one of the most selfish people I know. But no one realizes it.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:15 pm
I saw Mary Poppins on the big screen when I was 7 and very early the next morning I jumped off of the neighbor’s retaining wall with an umbrella. That was the biggest disappointment of my life. 20 years later I met some skydivers at a company picnic. The next weekend I took a lesson. I jumped out of airplanes for a couple of years. I can close my eyes and remember exactly how it feels.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:17 pm
People usually think I’m smart. Most of the time I’d prefer if they thought I was pretty.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:17 pm
Dana- I am scared to death of lighting! I will hide near an inside wall. tell everyone in the house to stay away from the windows and shut off and unplug all electrical things given the chance. I was trapped in my truck one day for an hour because the lightning was so bad.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:24 pm
I have squirrels in the attic and don’t care. The babies are so cute!
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:27 pm
I hate not knowing. Not knowing for sure what UFO’s are, what historical figures looked like, or what’s outside the edges of the universe and whether people are an accident. I struggle with profound and inane questions in my head all the time and my brain does not rest easy.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
I pretend to hate cats. But I don’t. I really just want them to like me, and they never do.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:38 pm
I love movies that were intended as serious movies but just ended up being cheesy and ridiculous. One example is Remo Williams.
I hate illogical things. They literally stop my brain and I have to relax for a minute and figure it out before moving on.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:42 pm
Every time I take off or land in a plane, I say the Hail Mary. And I’m not Catholic. I hope She doesn’t mind.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
I luv living remote. And passionately love animails!!!
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:47 pm
They say you are what you eat and one of my favorite foods is fried chicken hearts, yet I am more courageous than most. At the same time, I feel things more than most, male or female, and am more soft-hearted. I cry about injustices, especially against animals. I truly would rather interact with animals than people.
May 20th, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
Tiny Mouse-
Have you seen Wax Works? It’s delightfully awful! There are parts in the movie that you can pick out holes in the back-drop. I, too, love bad movies.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:03 pm
I love making clover chains. If I’m lucky enough to find a swath of lawn that has escaped the mower long enough for lovely long-stemmed clover flowers to grow, I must harvest at least a dozen and make a crown. And maybe a bracelet too.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:14 pm
I am very adept at 1st person shooter pc online gaming. Shhhh…dont tell my kids! I used to be ranked in the top 10 for Quake 3…. back in the day.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:20 pm
I love to mountain bike! The only time I truly feel joy is when I’m in the mountains riding my bike on a sweet singletrack trail. Winters are HELL for me.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:25 pm
I love camping by myself.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:32 pm
I love my husband but sometimes I worry that I won’t be able to achieve my dreams being married to him.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:34 pm
As much as I am trying to find a “real job” that’s full-time, with benefits, etc. I really secretly would be happy selling wine and cheese for the rest of my life, like I am now.
Oh, and I hate cotton balls.
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:34 pm
I wake up every morning with a song playing in my head. It’s like I’ve been picking up on radio waves and can hear it plain as day… thank God I never hear the commercials or news…
May 20th, 2010 @ 8:40 pm
Something people don’t know about me? LOL – I sleep with a teddy bear.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:03 pm
i spent the month of january hand-painting clothes pegs. i learned soo much experimenting with color mixing and combos. and i think they are beautiful.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
I love getting up in the wee early morning hours, make chocolate chip cookie dough and eat it raw. Then I wash all the dishes so no one knows my guilty secret.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:29 pm
For me, being older is more fulfilling than things were when I was young.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
My term of endearment for my dog is ‘Little Puppy’ even though she’s fat and old.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
Woohoo! My “mind melded” Indian paintbrush pics are up! http://blog.rimrockenglishshepherds.com/2010/05/20/wildflowers.aspx
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
I hate touching cotton (as in rough cotton, not once it’s spun into fabric). Especially cotton balls. Those balls they stick in the top of pill bottles? Blegh! I’m getting the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.
And if you have a little catch in your nail and the cotton gets stuck in it… GAAAAHHH!!!
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:59 pm
I found it easy to think up a dozen secret shames or worries, but I wanted to share something positive, like you’ve done, so I thought awhile and realized: I love feet. Not in a kinky way at all. I love the way my feet tingle after a long hot bath. I love sliding off my boots after a ten-mile hike. I love the feel of having freshly trimmed toenails. I love the way feet look, and I love drawing them.
I don’t love the way they smell. I’m not THAT weird.
May 20th, 2010 @ 9:59 pm
Most people don’t know that I am far more intelligent than they are.
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:02 pm
Wow! I am blown away reading these comments. Awesome honesty. One thing for me? I have a sentimental collection of toys, collars and fur that I’ve saved from each pet after they’ve past on. My favorite??? Cody’s fur(my Golden Retriever 9 yrs gone)I can pull out the bag of fur, inhale deeply, and still smell him.
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:04 pm
. . .
I love to swing in the park with my eyes closed, and then let myself fly out at the highest point and touch the leaves on a tree. It makes me feel like I’m the wind and not a human, with no thoughts, just motion and living and breathing and happiness. Like there is no tomorrow, no yesterday, just the now, the sky, the air, the grass, the tree and me.
. . .
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:05 pm
I love watching water starting to flow along a dry channel, ditch, gutter, you name it. I could literally watch it for hours. There is just something so delightful about seeing water working its way across dry ground…
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:08 pm
I am fascinated with origins and processes. Then asking questions no one has ever asked. Even of myself. It’s always thrilling and sometimes an absolute game changer!
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
Beautiful flower photo. My mother took photos of flowers, close-up like that one.
I still love to look for forms in clouds, and delight in finding them–at my (middle)age! Lucky children, and coyotes, who can gaze skyward as long as they wish…
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:21 pm
I love people. I love talking with and interacting with people. Heck, I think “people watching” is just fascinating.
That being said, I deeply enjoy the experience of solitude. Not “aloneness”, not “loneliness”, just solitude. I find it deeply restful an fulfilling.
If I can wrangle a way I will be living out of the city with plenty of opportunities for this in the net year.
May 20th, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
I silently say a prayer for every dead animal I encounter. Even bugs.
May 20th, 2010 @ 11:06 pm
I constantly challenge my fear of heights, as if it’s a contest I have to win. I usually do.
May 20th, 2010 @ 11:15 pm
I fantasize a lot (too often) about what it would be like to be kidnapped, then held in a room in complete darkness for the rest of my life. Would my senses be sterilized?
May 20th, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
I LOVE to read! I read the dictionary once to pass the time. Every time I eat cereal, I read the box. I’ve read my favorite book series at least 7 times (there are 12 books). If I’m not reading I’m not happy.
Have you ever read “post secrets”? It’s a book full of anonymous comments just like above.
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:33 am
i love time to myself, when the house is quiet, and i have some energy & feel well . . . i’ll either paint – or carpet sweep! (i do love my carpet sweeper but i’ve never dared tell anyone before!!)
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:59 am
I love quiet. Not suffocating-quiet, but natural quiet- listening to the breeze in an oak’s boughs, dozing off to the call of the Whippoorwill, or even taking a deep breath of cold, winter air while listening to a Coyote pack’s conversation echoing in the hills. It puts me in a total trance. Truth be told, I hate the quiet sound an empty room makes; I almost always crack open a window at night to feel the breeze and listen to the Green Tree Frogs.
(Star/Cloud gazing is optional but recommended, lol)
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:18 am
I day dream A LOT. All the time, especially when I’m bored or driving.
If I’m ever using glue for an art project I love peeling it off my fingers.. although glue nowadays I don’t think do that anymore (they must’ve changed the consistency)
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:47 am
My husband face me an iPad for mother’s day . . . . . . And I only use it to play solitaire.
I feel kinda bad, as a deck of cards only costs $3.00.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:49 am
That would be, “gave me an iPad”, not “face me”. Silly iPhone auto-incorrection.
May 21st, 2010 @ 3:28 am
along the same lines as your loving algebra (I totally get that, by the way)… When I lie in bed, I often make up really complicated algebra equations in my head on the spot and then proceed to solve it. I’m always curious to see what comes out, and the mental acrobatics needed to hold the equation in my head and solve it at the same time makes me smile. but I’m a little weird that way.
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:58 am
I love driving while it’s snowing, makes me feel like I’m in a spaceship.
I also LOVE puppy breath.
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:32 am
Sea Wolf – I am with you. I love silence. WHen I go hiking in the BlueRidge….the worst thing for me is to have other people around…chatting…making noise!!! It ruins everything. I like to hike, not to see people, smell fresh air, feel the wind and sun, hear all of nature. I often envision the planet with no people…as in how it would look without roads, concrete, building, strip mines, etc. It must have really been stunning once upon a time.
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:33 am
When I was ten, I decided I wanted to be a tightrope walker, so I practiced and practiced until I could walk on fences. I was still walking on fences when I was 20, that’s when I decided that maybe I looked a little silly.
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:33 am
Oh…and I want to add that I love kitten paws. God made them perfect!!! Cute and quite dexterous! (and kissable)
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:38 am
KarenHanson – you choked me up. I have little pouches of all my cats fur. They were so beautiful. I created a memory page with the clear pouches of fur and pictures of each one.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:04 am
I love the sound of howling wolves. It relaxes me and helps me sleep. I download the tracks from Itunes
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:12 am
I’m scared to death of thunder and lightening, but I love sitting in my backyard watching the storm roll in, the way the light changes color, the buzz the air gets, tthe wind, the way my dogs just sit right next to me thinking we could be inside right now!
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:17 am
Glad to know I’m not alone in savoring quiet — thanks CD and SeaWolf. I love my daily early morning walks on the beach and I know how lucky I am to live so close to the ocean with all its changes and moods. I talk to the birds, crabs and other sea critters and don’t feel weird about it at all. I think about what it was like before all the houses and condos and mentally transport myself back in time. My Mom walked on this beach every day while pregnant with me 66 years ago, perhaps there is some internal memory of that? No matter, I just LOVE the beach with only the sounds of nature engulfing me.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:31 am
I’m a very organized and planned out person and I LOVE it that way!
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:32 am
Everyone thinks I am so “together”. I’m not.
oh… and I love the sound of peepers in the spring.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:34 am
I wouldn’t say I love, but I do get immense pleasure from bees and bee keeping
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:34 am
Over the years I gradually got so I could hardly sleep at night. After reading an article on the internet about light in your eyes, I have made it a rule to shut down the computer at sunset. The computer can’t be on if the screen is lighter than the window next to it. It has made all the difference. I was getting very ill from sleep deficit.
If you have trouble, read this:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/13/sleep.gadgets.ipad/index.html?hpt=C1
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:37 am
Wraping gifts – I love all the different papers – and the embellishments, oh boy! In the end – it is all because I’m doing something for someone else – I’m trying to make something special for another.
Isn’t that what we should all be doing anyway, doing something special for others? The rewards back are so much greater than doing them for youself.
Shreve – you do this daily with your posts on the web. Thank you.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:43 am
I’m a really good whistler – on tune, vibrato, the whole enchillada…. And I can ALSO whistle two different ways with my fingers (my farmer Grampa showed me how) and it’s so loud I can clear a room.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:48 am
Dave R – Wow! Chicken hearts! I grew up on chicken gumbo, and the hearts were always MINE! ooooh, that’s something else about me no one would know!
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:58 am
One thing…
I’d love to have a horse again, and learn more about horse whispering. Horses are the best!
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:00 am
I love the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. I could sit and listen to that all day.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:06 am
Patr, I work for a rather well known company that makes ‘the very best’ gift wrap. You are right, wrapping gifts for someone gives you a lovely feeling inside. I am sad that we have become such a ‘gift card giving’ population–where’s the thought and imagination in that?
I love the smells of my rescue dogs–all of them, past and present. Their paws smell of popcorn, and I love coming home each day and inhaling the intoxicating scent of their entire bodies. It gives you a great reason to go to bed at night–because they are curled up next to you and you can sniff them anytime you want! (My DH also smells terrific ;-)
My secret ambition is to be a Foley artist–the people who do sound effects for movies/radio, etc. I have zero training in this field, just would like to know how to do it. Maybe when I turn 60 next year…! I also want to learn how to surf and play the steel drums (yes I am a Parrothead).
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:08 am
I will be curious to the day I die (and hopefully beyond…though…curious ghosts/angels tend to get bad tv shows on CBS).
(And your Indian Paintbrush is not what I expected! In New England, our Indian Paintbrush is a tiny, dryish, flame orange bloom!)
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:19 am
so many things… but here’s one that sometimes shames me:
Everyone tells me what an awesome mom I am to my daughter (almost 13 with autism). I try my best, and I’ve made mistakes. But sometimes, when I’m alone with my self-pity, I resent that I never got to have tea parties with the daughter I wanted, instead of IEP meetings with the daughter I *have*. It makes me cry, self-loathing, for the false face everyone else sees – the “brave, courageous, resourceful and strong” woman they believe me to be – when sometimes all I want to do is run away.
I love her, and it hurts that sometimes, only sometimes, I want her to be what she is not.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:20 am
I have a daily 60 mile commute that has me in the car for a minimum of 2 hours a day. I sing and dance along with just about every song that comes on the radio and I don’t care who sees me. Every now and then, I’ll get a smile or someone who will join in but most of the time I get raised eyebrows or frowns of disapproval. I feel sorry for those people and usually stick my tongue out at them.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:23 am
I love long-distance walking, especially in England….inn to inn, pub to pub. If I had the time, I’d walk across the US.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:24 am
I love having bruises, it means I worked hard at something and I have something to be proud of and remind me of my hard work for a few days afterwards.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:24 am
I talk to my truck. Whenever I get in I say good morning or hello, and when I am done with each trip, I think it.
And I would never say anything to hurt Blue’s feelings when the truck is near.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:30 am
The wonderul smell of dirt, especially after a spring rain. The smell of life!
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:39 am
I talk to trees. Two of my favourites in our garden, are a plane tree and a hawthorn. I am sure that they are in love.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:39 am
I always cry when I hear the songs Taps and Amazing Grace.
And I love the zen of brushing a willing animal.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:43 am
I LOVE parades. Parades and El Caminos.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:48 am
I have a wandering soul. Staying in one place too long makes me feel trapped.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:48 am
I love to tie my hair in a bun, put my head in the sunshine for a couple of minutes and then feel with my hand how my hair as absorbed the sunlight heat.
I also love to hang my bathrobe near a heater in the evening and in the morning put it on all warm!
In contrast, I love the crisp first breath when going outside on a cold winter morning. It’s so envigorating!
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:49 am
I don’t know that there is anything my husband doesn’t know about me, but most people don’t know that I love the sound of high heels on slate/chalk on slate chalkboard. Something about the resonance of that click is very appealing to me.
Also, I love the smell of car exhaust pre-catalytic converter days. I was about 6 or 7 when they came in and even though I had no idea about them until much later, I could totally tell that the smell had changed.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:50 am
Wow, so interesting to read about everyone, and not know anybody.
I love nature! Listening to the birds, who are always so happy, watching my flowers grow, the smell of freshly cut grass and just sitting on my deck, with a nice glass of red, listening to classical music. Ah, life is great!!!!!!
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:52 am
I love all of my cats but my orange one means more to me than life. He’s my constant buddy, friend and has seen me through everything – good and bad. I can’t imagine life without him.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:56 am
I love to walk with my eyes closed and my face pointing toward the sun.. the warmth is so calming. Only wish I had a place safe to do that.
May 21st, 2010 @ 7:59 am
I hated the sheep herder from my previous life. But I now know what love and kindness feel like.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:05 am
I love philosophy, it calms me
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:07 am
I daydream all the time.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:14 am
Ditto to Meg’s post :
I love the smell of stables, and would gladly spend all day mucking out stalls just to be around the horses.
The leather smells and sounds like I suppose heaven does.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:24 am
I miss the jobs I had that were physical labor. There is more of a sense of achievement for me with it than my current desk job. Also, I was more tan and was in great shape because of it.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:32 am
I don’t know how to “want” things. Maybe because I’m afraid I won’t ever get them.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:41 am
I love words! Ever since I was little, I like to see how many words I can make out of a word. For example, tissue – suit, sue, sit… I’m kinda strange like that. Of course, the bigger the word, the better! I also love green olives – I could eat a whole jar everyday, but I don’t.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:00 am
I want to upgrade all my high school science classes so I can take post secondary courses to become a park ranger or wildlife pretection officer.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:05 am
I love to sing. I recently joined a women’s vocal trio called the Treblemakers. Singing with just three people has really challenged me musically. Sometimes we sing “a capella” — with no instrumental accompaniment. We all have to listen to each other closely and blend our voices so we sing as one.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:10 am
One thing: I am so tired of dating lately, I think I would be happy with another dog or a cat or both. I think it would allow me to be more introspective. Or a hermit. Or both.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:14 am
Ever since learning about the Milgram experiments in high school, my greatest fear is to be too afraid of standing up against injustice. I think about it all the time.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:39 am
I love algebra! Every day in my email I get a practice SAT question of the day, but I only do the math ones. (The English ones are too easy)
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:40 am
I grew up thinking I was a cat person; my friends even said I must have been a cat in another life. In the last few years though, I have found myself surrounded by dogs, and wouldn’t trade any of them for the world–even the very difficult, timid one I have now. I love Conner and work with him tiredly (?) and tirelessly to try to get him over his fear of anything and everything.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:41 am
I love to walk my cat on her leash in my yard.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:48 am
I bark at the crows and hawks hunting my free-range poultry when the dog is taking a break inside. Good thing I don’t have close neighbors, but the folks on the highway probably wonder… “What is she doing????”
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:50 am
I love wrangling Pelicans!
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:52 am
The unforgettable sensation of freedom I felt when I realized we are always in the state that is most beneficial to us at the time…Good or bad, as we perceive it, it is ours to do with as we wish…This freedom renews itself each moment of our lives.
May 21st, 2010 @ 9:58 am
When I’m walking outside, if I hear birds singing and I’m alone, I talk back to them. I don’t sing back usually, but I repeat what they say: “Jeeba jeeba jeeba wheat wheat wheat. Chick-a-dee-dee-dee. Jeeba jeeba jeeba.” Sometimes I swear I’m having a conversation with a bird, but they’re probably just mocking my accent. :)
May 21st, 2010 @ 10:15 am
I feel more comfortable around animals than around human beings. If my man dies before me, I will end up the Cat Lady (hopefully, by then, the Farm Lady) and live my hermit life quite happily.
May 21st, 2010 @ 10:44 am
I will respect you once you show me that you can and will do a hard day’s work well and with cheer. Bonus points for a sense of humor.
May 21st, 2010 @ 10:46 am
Mercy! What wonderful comments!
I love puppy breath too, thunderstorms and lightening. They always say to stay away from the window, but I can never resist watching.
I guess my favorite thing is lying in bed at night listening to the night sounds. Peepers, coyote yips, owls, Chuck will widows and on and on. Also love that first warm sun in spring and watching meteor showers. There are so many things to enjoy in this world, life is good!
That little lamb is TOO darling!
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:08 am
I love puppy breath too and love wrapping my arms around my horse and burying my face in his neck and enjoy his scent—it is so calming and almost hypnotic to me.He is such a good boy and tolerates this invasion.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:12 am
I love the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil and the shavings.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:45 am
I’m terrified to fail but at the same point, my personal philosophy is to face all your fears. And those that know me think I’m fearless. They don’t realize that half the things I do I’m afraid of at the beginning.
I too LOVE thunder & lightening. As a little kid, I used to get very upset if my parents didn’t wake me up so we could watch the storm on the porch at night. What frustrates me is that I have not been able to get a good picture of lightning yet.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:46 am
Something nobody knows – I get so sad when I see a dead animal on the side of the road. I say a little prayer that it didn’t suffer and an apology that humans don’t watch out for them.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:59 am
Brilliant thread Shreve..Thanks for asking. Really great comments and some really profound ones too.
Same here Alexandra, I too feel more comfortable around animals than around human beings – this might be even evident to others, so here’s one that nobody knows: is that I love boxes, bags and paper. All different shapes, sizes, colors and textures. I even love cardboard boxes (I don’t buy any of things, I just save them when they come my way… well OK, I have bought a few boxes)
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
I am breathless over these comments. They cleansed my brain and heart. Thank you.
I love to talk and walk with God and call Him “friend”.
I love to dance – car-dancing is highly underrated.
I love the changing light and colors of each and every day.
The smell of rain and earth make me cry with joy.
I see humor in almost everything. When others are oblivious, and I’m the only one who sees it, it’s like a treasured secret… and so much funnier.
I used to rush and multi-task beyond human endurance; now I adore solitude and taking my time.
I don’t like cucumbers – they taste like a headache.
I weep over animals.
I planted tulip bulbs at the base of the oak tree where my mom’s ashes were lovingly placed, and this year they actually came up. They’re the exact color of the lipstick she wore – but here’s the secret: 3 weeks ago (and please don’t tell anyone ;-)) I drove to the tree, knelt in the grass and smelled them… at midnight. Divine.
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:02 pm
I love my dog more than anything in the whole world and seeing her face can always make me smile :) Also, grackles are my favorite birds.
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:19 pm
I love my animals. I should have been a forest ranger because I can happily live alone without people – as long as I have my dogs. DOGS GIVE YOU SO MUCH LOVE!!!
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:25 pm
I’ve learned so much reading your first hand experiences (through your websites and book) in how to respect and honor all the wild critters here in the deep woods of north Alaska. We co-habitate with mutual curiosity and boundries.
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
I love The Daily Coyote, haven’t missed a day since I found the website!
I love reading as do many here.
I *sorta* love Chip, AKA Dog of Very Little Brain, it’s fun to watch him doing what he does best, being BAD and it’s fun to scratch those soft silky ears….
And, of course, I love Anne.
May 21st, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
There are some things that just have to be eaten stale. Red Vines. Gummi Bears. Peeps. But I hate the waiting.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:03 pm
I love rocks and fossils. I have them all over my apartment and I hope that when people spot them in random places, that they appreciate them. I also like putting toy snakes on some as a joke. I’m also making time to literally stop and smell the flowers and enjoy all of the bunnies I’m seeing in the big city… I also like waving to cats and dogs sitting in windows.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:04 pm
I have hotel bed germ phobias and bring my own sheets, blankets and pillows when I travel…you never know who has been there before you!
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:09 pm
One thing…..I can’t walk through a store and leave an item that has fallen on the floor. That pasta box that is sitting all the way down there…yep have to put it back on the shelf with all it’s little pasta box friends.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
I love my mom. As I’m getting older our relationship means so much to me. We’ve always had a great relationship, even when I was a kid. We enjoy each other’s company — just like friends would. Our relationship seems like a good bottle of wine — it just gets better with age. I am very fortunate.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
I probably don’t know half myself half as well as I would like, and I like less than half myself half as well as I deserve…
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
First, I love these comments. I want to read them all day…it should definitely be another book…
I can’t choose one thing so here’s a few:
I am obsessed with the dead gnarly trees here in the desert and saguaro skeletons. They’re so beautiful. I’m obsessed with the desert period…
I LOVE the smell of my dogs’ feet…they smell like warm corn chips and it comforts me. :)
I HATE HATE HATE it when people clip their nails in public! The sound of the nail clippers makes me shudder and think of nail clippings bouncing onto the floor and nail dust invading the air…I don’t want to share those things with people! BLECH!
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
I LOVE ironing!! as sad as that sounds I find it soothing, calming and a great sense of accomplishment.
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:50 pm
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE HOT SPRINGS!!!! I love to find hot springs in the middle of the Nevada desert and soak!!!
May 21st, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
I love the smell of wet dirt. Pulling weeds and that smell is always so therapeutic to me. I also love to do laundry…I love that smell of clean clothing.
May 21st, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
My mom is on a diet. Last time we were all at her house for dinner, there was one piece of cake left and we all declined. After dinner, she shooed us out of the kitchen so she could clean up. Later on I saw that the last piece of cake was gone. I know she ate it because I do that same thing at my own home – wait until everyone has left the room and then eat another helping. For some reason remembering about this breaks my heart so hard. No one knows.
May 21st, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
One thing: I love the moment after I turn off any vehicle and things are perfectly still and quiet.
May 21st, 2010 @ 3:52 pm
When I’m at the store, if something is in the wrong place on the rack/shelf, I will put it where it belongs. And if a lot of things are in the wrong place, I will reorganize them.
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
It’s another day and another one thing or two.
I luv to hear the sound of water flowing in a creek. Luv to hear a heavy rain on a tin roof.
And I am also someone who says a prayer, and tell them I’m sorry, for the dead animal on the side of the road. Even when I see there pictures on Craigs List needing a home I pray for them to find there forever loving home.
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
I love watching plays. I get so caught up in the live performance that I find it difficult to separate it from reality. Nor do I want to.
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
When I was a teenager, I had an old Honda Accord. I used to LOVE when I would turn on the air conditioner right when I got in – it smelled like dust and I absolutely loved the smell. My new car doesn’t do this anymore…and I was very sad about it, for a long time. I missed my favorite smell!
THEN – I got a cat. Abbey Cat! She’s long haired, and if you bury your face in her and breathe in, she smells EXACTLY like my old car. Her long fur traps all the dust from our apartment and it’s just wonderful. I absolutely love her kittie smell.
Yes, now that I’ve read that back I seem very strange. But dust smells good!
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
These comments are really lovely to read. Although different in taste, they are the sa me in nature.
I also love algebra
and raking leaves, crossword puzzles, and scrabble.
May 21st, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
I love to wash dishes, it is a meditation for me. I also love the smell of gasoline when I am pumping gas. lol
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:25 pm
I often talk to my son who died not so long ago. Special times when the moon is up. When I hear the sound of a far off train whistle. When I care for his cat putting him up on the table to feed or lifting him up on to the bed at night. Sometimes I think the cat is Tyler, I miss him so.
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
Colleen, are you my ‘separated at birth sister’? I also do the exact same thing with words, esp in boring meetings–people think I’m taking notes ;-).
And I l-o-v-e green olives, but only the giant green ones with the pimientos.
May 21st, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
I love to eat skittles and M&M’s one color at a time
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:14 pm
Thank you for your pictures and this post, Shreve!
Wendy, your comment brought tears to my eyes. I truly understand what you are saying and thank you for sharing.
I love water: rain, sea, showers, puddles, the moment water starts to role and boil in my clear, glass tea pot. I love the feel of it and dive into it (clothes and all) whenever I can. I love the silence mixed with white noise when I am immersed in it. I love its endless expanse. I love the taste of it after hot exercise. I love knowing that when rain falls, all animals and vegetation are having their needs met–and hopefully thriving. I, too, LOVE the perfection of an algebraic equation. I love animals more than people and crave solitude with every cell in my body, but worry that my husband won’t agree to move out of the city.
May 21st, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
Tony:
Keep talking to him; he likely hears you. And if he doesn’t, God does and will relay the message. I am so sorry for your loss. My father passed 25 years ago this weekend as a young man and I still talk to him. I sometimes awaken and feel as though I just interacted with him.
May 21st, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
Thank you Dave,
Tony
May 21st, 2010 @ 10:08 pm
Tony, I am so sorry for your loss. Dave, your comment was lovely.
May 21st, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
After posting my first ‘one’ I picked up my sketchbook and realized another odd thing. Whenever I’m drawing people, I unconsciously make the expression they have.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:00 pm
I love to hear the rhythmic chewing of horses, mules or donkeys in a dark barn.
May 21st, 2010 @ 11:31 pm
that third picture is a ‘one.’ i find that picture utterly beautiful.
truly.
(thank you everyone. i loved the other ‘ones.’)
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:12 am
I can curl my top lip up to completely seal off my nostrils, totally airtight. Very handy when swimming.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:34 am
I can’t watch embarrassing moments on television without turning away and closing my eyes (a show like Three’s company, with all the mistaken hijinks probably results in my eyes closed through half of it).
Although I’m a terrible musician, I like to stand up on a chair and play my electric bass between the hours of 2 to 5 am.
Also, I love to watch ants for hours.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:55 am
Its amazing how much we all have in common..I can relate to alot of the things said..but never told anyone..I too say a prayer for animals by the road..and hope they did not suffer..love the smell of my dogs..sound of wolves howling..and the ocean can bring me to tears…I think everyones heart felt comments are so beautiful..Marlene from C
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:11 am
The first thing I do when I get to work in the morning is read the following websites… Astronomy Picture Of The Day, Cute Overload, Daily Coyote. After this I’m ready to face anything, which is good because the day typically goes downhill from there.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:20 am
How I function is affected by light. I hate to pull down the blinds when I go to bed Friday night, because I look forward to seeing how the light reappears, little by little, in the early morning. I try to put little light sources around my house, to avoid sad, dark corners. Ceiling lights make me feel downright ill. It usually means I’m in an unpleasant place or something bad is about to happen (e.g., work setting or doctor’s office).
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:34 am
I love making lists – at work and at home. The writing down of a list on paper makes me feel a bit more in control of everything that needs to get done. Then I don’t worry quite so much about forgetting.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:56 am
I love my scars. A lot of them are huge, and pretty obvious, and make it impossible to forget all the pain and surgery, and disappointment, and anger, but I wouldn’t give them up for anything.
Eventually I want to get a tattoo over the largest one, but I think I will miss it being the way it is, and feeling the bumps from the 75 staples, and the super smooth spots in between.
When they fade I feel like not just my skin is healing, but my soul too, and they say I survived and I will keep surviving, and adding new scars.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:01 am
I love watching birds take a bath! Whether it’s in the neighbors bird bath or a little puddle after a good rain, I find it relaxing and incredibly joyous to watch them dip and flap and shimmy and shake! It brings me a great sense of peace!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:03 am
I was struck by lightning years ago and although everyone knows I’m scared of storms they don’t know that I love them because of how alive they make me feel. I love the adrenaline before they get here and also how it feels like the lightning is looking for me. For me, cause it didn’t finish the job the last time.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:04 am
I helped with the branding of 301 calves 15 years ago.
At first I was the “ball carrier”
When that didn’t faze me, I was given the privilege of inoculating for Black Leg disease.
I’m from the suburbs and this was the delight of my life
I was given the nickname Cow Patty that day, my favorite nickname EVER.
I loved every smell that day.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:10 am
When I was a teenager I just knew that I would never live past my early twenties. I was certain that I’d die, most likely in a car accident.
I’m now 27 and have a little child, and every day is the most precious gift.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:45 am
I too love algebra….step by step logic makes things fall into place. And I love ironing. It’s very soothing (especially in the winter) and you see the progress as it happens.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 8:28 am
I love the sound of wind in white pines. It’s like a soft whisper and I feel it like it’s caressing my soul.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:10 am
I’m about to move from New York to Idaho, and I’m so excited I could cry. Only the people closest to me know at the moment. I can’t wait until I can shout it from the rooftops.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:20 am
DesertGirl: I also love the smell of my dog’s paws, especially when she’d been still or sleeping because the scent builds up. Try smelling their eye sockets too! Heaven!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:22 am
When I’m sitting quietly working or reading and another person is working nearby, I get a strong warm, bursting feeling in my chest. It’s wonderful. An example would be reading in a library and someone comes by re-shelving books.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:30 am
I love the mountains. Every time I drive West and see the mountains in front of me I feel their call. Most of the time I have to stop between ranges.
I love flying in private planes. All the same time I relax so much I feel like I could fall asleep but I get so excited to see the world below me. I also feel very safe knowing I’m usually related to my pilot, and that I’m usually flying at an altitude equal to, or lower than, where I live. For some reason 5000ft doesn’t feel very dangerous.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:36 am
I’m older and heavier than you think
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:38 am
I’m only 41 and love watching Lawrence Welk every Saturday night on PBS. I can’t stand going into bars, the energy feels very negative to me.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 10:22 am
I devour everything I can find about FDR. I don’t worship his image and believe I have a clear image of his “faults,” just feel oddly interested in him and his time in history.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 10:37 am
I’ve had to take Dilaudid every day for months now and after reading these entries I realize how numbed I’ve become to the sensory aspects of life that used to thrill. Wow. Thanks for this, Shreve.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:03 am
I’m in love with my former best friend and we haven’t spoken in several years.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:06 am
I love to be in the ocean but very nervous when my sons are in the ocean!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:21 am
These comments are lovely, and some have made me cry. Some have made me smile, too!
Whenever I see or hear an ambulance with its sirens on, my heart seems to stop. I’m not religious, but I observe a moment of silence for whoever is in the ambulance, or soon will be. The sirens make me hopeful, and sad.
I love my dog more than I ever thought was possible. I am almost scared to have kids.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:49 am
I love seeing the moon in the daytime, against a blue sky. It reminds me of my place in the universe and makes me happy, somehow.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:54 am
I love textures. Stones, bricks, tree trunks, leaves, fabrics of all kinds, whether something is hot from the sun or cool in the shade. I love running my hands over all these things.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
TO WENDY…you’re feelings are SO natural and HUMAN. What a beautiful soul you are and I KNOW…a wonderful mom…You just touched my heart…Hope this isn’t a Blog hijack, but I felt the need to say that. I’m sending love to you…
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:04 pm
I think that my dogs were real people in another life…and some people would’nt approve that I treat them as good/or better than some people… :)
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:20 pm
In my head, I call my family’s dog Dunya or Dunechka after Raskolinkov’s sister in ‘Crime & Punishment’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
I save earthworms from puddles on the sidewalk.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 12:52 pm
I have worked in a quasi-academic profession for more than 32 years. All this time I have felt like I have been faking it, mainly because I have no actual academic schooling in this particular field, even though I have a BA & MA in a sometimes ancillary discipline. All of my knowledge and experience is from doing field work. Most people have no idea of this or that I am so insecure. I have a really uncomfortable reaction when I am presented as a “professional.”
May 22nd, 2010 @ 1:03 pm
One thing about me, previously unknown to everyone else: I hated my mother. She has been dead for 20 years now, and I am SO GRATEFUL.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
After 19 years, my heart still jumps when I think about my husband & I get butterflies when he pulls in the driveway after work :)
May 22nd, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
I too love the smell of my dog’s paws. Some how they remind me of popcorn.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
I love the sound of 60 sled dogs howling together after I feed them. It’s like a big “thank you”!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 1:54 pm
All of the comments about thunderstorms compels me to share that when I was really little I was terrified of storms. Then, when I was four, my favoritest uncle held me in his arms as we stood in the large front window watching a tremendous storm. And then and there I stopped being afraid and learned to absolutely love them. My uncle died six years later at the age of 42, so ever since I’ve enjoyed storms for him, too–with immense gratitude for helping transform my perspective.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
I love waking up in the morning and hearing the sound of rain. It makes me feel calm, and if possible I go right back to sleep. I am very much at peace during this time.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
I love wollves and coyotes… I grew up with wolfcrosses…. they capture my soul…..
May 22nd, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
I long to move from a big city on the West Coast and go back to Michigan and live in a tiny house with a tiny garden in a tiny town. And I don’t like feeling that I am too old to do this.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
Oh, Tony… my heart breaks for you. You are now permanently in my prayers.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
I dream about getting laid off from my high-paying but dead-end career and traveling the world. I’m afraid I will wake up one day with a mortgage and a family and a so-so marriage, never once having seen the Ganges or the South of France or Morocco or Goa or Bali or …
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
I don’t like being a wife and mother and would do anything just to be alone.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
I walk our cats on a leash. Well, to be fair, only one will actually walk all the way around the block; the other two stay near the front yard. But it is the cutest thing and she always generates double-takes from passers-by.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
I am the youngest of my family and at 64 I still remember the sadness of not getting the one hand-me-down teddy bear my siblings all had because Mom, now long gone, said it looked too shabby. I have never had a teddy bear. Upon meeting me no one would suspect I might harbor such a thought. I made sure my children had their own teddy bears.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:39 pm
I’ve stood in the end of a rainbow. Of course from where I stood, I wasn’t in it, but my Dad and brother could see me in it from a little ways away.
I love the first whiff of skunk in the spring! It was always my certain sign that it was spring while growing up in MN.
I am more afraid of worse pain than of dying.
I hope and pray and beg and plead not to be alone any longer… I’m so tired of loneliness.
I’ve stood holding a stallion’s lead as he reared up and waved his hooves at the wind in pure joy at being out of the barn. That was something I never thought I’d do, but always dreamed of. My Dad used to tell the tale of my grandfather doing that and I was so impressed!
I am deathly afraid of never finding joy in life again, because of the chronic pain I live in and what it has done to my life.
This thread is wonderful! Sorry for writing too much.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
I love to just watch my cats. They seem so self-possessed and so ‘perfect’ in their compact sleekness. I’d like to come back as a cat in my next life.
I also read everything, even cereal boxes! I can’t ‘not’ read words when I see them.
And I know I love this blog because it combines words and pictures, something I’ve loved ever since I was a child reading Natl. Geographic cover to cover and looking through each Life magazine at the wonderful pictures throughout.
Wonderful entry, Shreve–all our commonalities and fantastic human quirks!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 5:03 pm
I LOVE to read. I’m always sad when I finish a good story. It’s hard for me to wait for Dean Koontz’s next one…I love stories of good vs evil and good always wins in his books…plus he loves dogs I think as much as I do.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 5:50 pm
I can’t stop reading all the entries..so raw and full of honesty..I also have never read comments from a post that are so touching..
I am amazed…Marlene from Cambria
May 22nd, 2010 @ 5:52 pm
people tell me I remember things about them. They like me for it. I don’t do algebra – take a more heuristic approach to problems
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
Jon Boy.
I also had no teddy. And my Mother threw away my baby blanket because she said it was just a “rag”.
When I was in my 30s I got over my embarassment and bought my own teddy. I know own many teddys. Some are even named Teddy, some are not.
If you come across a bear needing a home, do not hesitate. Make no excuses and don’t be embarassed. Give him a home.
You’ll both feel better.
As for me, I’m pretty transparent. There isn’t much people don’t know. I don’t advertise but I’m not secretive either.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:01 pm
Oh and there was that moment in my life when I was 11 and a circus set up on the field opposite my school, and being curious I went to explore and found a makeshift pen made from straw-bales – with two tiger-cubs and a lion-cub in it.
I climbed in and played with the kittens (the size of small dogs). A lady came by and said “you shouldn’t be in there” and then walked on as she could see that I and the cubs were having fun.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:34 pm
I really enjoy sweet, silly jokes. And like telling them. Especially when they are about animals.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 6:41 pm
Chocolate with raisins.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:06 pm
Phoenix — I too love that gasoline smell. Also skunk scent. They’re both so different, but refreshing and real.
I am afraid I will never escape my feelings of inadequacy.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:31 pm
What do I love? The sound and smell of rain. It makes me feel like Mother Nature is close by, once again taking care of Her planet and I sometimes find myself unconsciously saying “thank you” for Her attention.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:38 pm
I ‘snorgled’ my cats before the word existed. My tabbies always smell like freshly cut grass, my grey lady like dry earth. I love the smell, and think it’s maybe God’s way of saying they are grounded and I should learn from them.
When I was in high school, I went away to camp for 2+ weeks in the wilderness in Colorado, and on a multi-day hiking trip with a small group that chose a more challenging path. There was a solo hike day, and a solo night at the base of a peak. I did them both. Hours into my solo hike, I felt more in touch with myself and the outdoors than ever before, I sang as I walked not to fill up the silence but in gratitude to the birds who chirped greetings to me. Following that solo night with nothing but my sleeping bag, I felt a sense of peace and confidence I wonder if I’ll ever match again.
Last summer, when my husband and I were camping, a coyote trotted through our little site mid-afternoon. He tensed up, but I just smiled and enjoyed the prance in his step as he trotted off after a little pause. The next morning, our off-white-and-mesh tent had little red paw prints all over it about a foot high. I loved the idea that more of the park’s creatures came to check us out while we slept and found us curious but not threatening.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
I love office supplies like paper clips, staplers, hole punches, notebooks,pens, and highlighters. I could spend all day in an Office Max. I buy day planners but I don’t ever use them. I just like having them.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 8:05 pm
One thing about me – I feel really disconnected with the world if I don’t get out enough to reconnect with birds, trees, turtles, water, … all of nature!
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
I am totally jazzed by approaching storms. I love it when the sky gets all green and swirly and tornado alarms go off. There’s something electric about the air itself, even before lightning strikes. And the wind stirring up leaves, and twigs, and amazing smells is just heavenly. Oh, and I adore the smell of wet dogs.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:19 pm
I am in love with my garden. It makes me feel like I really CAN accomplish something.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
I love the sound that pool balls make when they hit. It’s just a really clean crack. I also really like the noise that shod horse hooves make on cobblestone/pavement/brick. I know this sounds kind of strange but these are two of my favorite sounds.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:49 pm
The last few years my life has been consumed by my mother who has chronic pain. She has tried to overdose twice. I was the one that found her both times.
I question all the time what is more painful: That fact that she tried to commit suicide twice or the fact that she survived.
It rips to the very center of my being that there is no answer to that question that will give me peace. Or her.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 9:55 pm
Had to return to finish reading all the comments. They just go to show that we are all more alike than different. Wish that the rest of the world could read them.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 10:09 pm
People think I have an elitist complex, because I give short, curt answers, don’t socialize much, and do things quickly. The truth is, I value their time so much I cut them off if I already know something so they don’t have to waste their time explaining. As for the socializing? I’m afraid people will think I’m a hypochondriac and think ill of me because there are so many medical things wrong.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 10:14 pm
When I die, I want my childhood stuffed animals cremated with me-I can’t imagine ever getting rid of them, or having them live alone without me-they dried my tears, kept me company in the dark, and kept all my secrets. They are part of me, and I am part of them. And I’m positive when I’m not looking, they’re getting into mischief.
May 22nd, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
Moondoggie I am an only child so I would love a sibling!!! Green olives MUST be stuffed with pimentos! xoxo
You all are beautiful and raw and amazing and I don’t cry easily but have definitely been crying since reading these posts. SuzyQ summed it up well. Shreve, you just rock, as always! xo
May 22nd, 2010 @ 11:29 pm
I don’t like myself much. Or perhaps I should say that I am perpetually disappointed with myself.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 12:15 am
4 years ago I had to undergo an extreme operation, my scariest moment to date. A friend gave me a stuffed animal, a teddy bear wearing a cheetah suit (like an infant’s onesie with cheetah ears attached). I awoke after surgery in pain, incredulous because the surgeons had to perform a radical hysterectomy and dazed. I hugged that bear/cheetah with all my might and slept with it the whole time in the hospital. When my loved ones left after visiting hours I was left alone with my thoughts and my fears. He comforted me. I still sleep with it and marvel at the insight my friend had in giving it to me. Sometimes when we are scared, beaten down or confused the greatest source of comfort is to hug a stuffed animal–even one with an identity crisis.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 3:19 am
I grew up Catholic, but now only attend church for weddings and funerals.
I say a prayer every time an ambulance wails by.
I wear a St. Christopher medal when I travel.
I fell in love with music at church.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 3:30 am
I love weeds. I love studying them, identifying them, and taking them out. Today was my first day off in a while and I stuck some clippers in my pocket and cut down a bunch of Italian Thistle at a nearby Open Space Preserve.
Also, these comments are beautiful.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 4:04 am
I love that the coyotes chose me in a dream. They urinated on me in that dream, as I was trying to protect them from an angry mob. Every since I first heard them, the sound of yipping and howling coyotes almost makes my heart burst. And I’ll say softly or to myself, “Hello, Brothers and Sisters.”
Wendy, I used to work with autistic children, and I think you are amazing. It’s so very hard, and what you’re feeling is so normal.
Tony…*hugs*
I adore storms. I grew up in Florida and we had the very best storms there. Now I live in California, and as much as I love it, I really miss the awesome and powerful thunderstorms of Florida.
I’m pretty sure my current dog, Greta, is the reincarnation of my Weimaraner, Hans. Greta is (and Hans was) the joy of my life. In the morning, she stays in bed while I get up to get ready for work. After a while, she crawls out from under the covers and waits for me. We have our quiet time where I rub her all over, and she yawns loudly. She has terrible morning breath but I love it. I find few things more comforting than the feel of her warm body under the covers with me.
I am sad that I will not be able to have children, but also secretly relieved. I do think I would have made an incredible mom, and I grieve over the child/ren I never had.
I, too, apologize and cross myself when I see dead animals, particularly on the road. I pray for their souls, and it pains me that we are so careless with their lives.
If a friendly alien race landed today and wanted volunteers to go live with them, I’d be there in a heartbeat (if I could bring my dog). The thought of space travel is thrilling.
When I was young, I used to hang on the side of the pool, submerge myself, and then pull myself up, breaching the water’s surface and taking a breath. I did this repeatedly for hours on end. It was so soothing and relaxing and strangely primal.
I sometimes feel animals’ emotions.
I know God has a purpose for me, and it has to do with helping the planet, and animals, and people. Beyond that, I haven’t a clue.
Thank you all for being so present and honest and amazing. And thank you, Shreve, for providing this forum, and for Daily Coyote.
You all brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could hug everyone (who wants it). :)
May 23rd, 2010 @ 4:05 am
Um…sorry for being such a space hog.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 10:39 am
I love to be in the desert, alone or with my dog Andy, watching the clouds float by and listening to the flies.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 11:03 am
When I’m stressed out or disappointed with my real life, my mind goes to my “special place” (a beautiful cabin in the woods) and I hang out there until I’m ready to deal.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 11:26 am
I love all four seasons. I love the wonderful outdoors and the peace of my home.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
After reading all the comments to date I know that saving worms from drownding and saying God Bless to dead animals is not my task alone. Thanks to all those dear souls like me. I feel that I am sending all the above to heaven.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
One new event in my life, now that I am 30, that will stay with me. My relationship with my mother has ended…it is no more; will be a long life for both, separate ways. Not all mothers make a life time commitment to their kids I guess, this makes me think that if I decide to be a mother I will make the commitment and be there no matter what. So this year, mother day irritated me.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
I can’t help but come back, this is the third time. Your all so intreging. I still keep thinking about all the one things and they just won’t quite. So bear with me as I turned 60 this past year and sure have been doing alot of thinking about the past in my life. And I have a few more to share. I luv the smell of a woodstove smoke when your standing outside in the cold and the antipication of going back inside to it solid warmth. The smell of homemade bread cooking in a old cookstove also. The last one is the slient white, when you look outside and see the snow falling.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 1:40 pm
After reading these comments I just realized I’m not very interesting. Drat.
Let’s see…I have an enormous capacity for solitude. I like most people but genuinely need large swathes of time alone, just to recharge, think, process the world. Animals, no matter how demanding, aren’t draining the way people are. True confession: I don’t watch television and only listen to radio while driving. Silence, or just the sounds of the natural world, are healing when the people-world erodes me too much.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 3:58 pm
Bread dough…I love making it, kneading it, smelling, watching it grow and baking it. Eating the bread is OK too, but the process thrills me.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 4:41 pm
Wow, I’m stunned by all these. Mine’s that I love the way my parrot smells and no matter how grumpy I am, when I pull in the drive and hear my birds flock calling a greeting, and my dogs meet me at the door, and my parrot runs up to my shoulder to kiss me, it all melts away. A world without animals is not worth living in.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 7:41 pm
I separate my m and m’s by color. I eat the largest color to the smallest color one by one until they are all even and then all gone!
May 23rd, 2010 @ 9:13 pm
I love re-arranging furniture. Totally changes the atmosphere. also, holding hands
May 23rd, 2010 @ 9:15 pm
I love birds that sing in the morning and the dew on flowers that I can drink!
Also, I love my dog.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
I enjoy listening to the sound of loons singing across a lake at nightfall.
May 23rd, 2010 @ 11:06 pm
I love hiking and hearing the crunch of rocks under my feet
May 24th, 2010 @ 1:45 am
My cat and I have been together for 18 years (I can’t remember life without her). I don’t think it’s possible that I will ever love anything as much as I do her.
I’m okay with that.
May 24th, 2010 @ 7:24 am
For some strange reason, I LOVE filling out forms. Most people hate all the forms when you go to the doctor’s office, etc… but I secretly enjoy every second of it.
May 24th, 2010 @ 8:35 am
I love the taste of seat belts. I also have a habit of closing my eyes and trying to take 20 steps without opening them…and have only been able to do it once or twice.
May 24th, 2010 @ 9:04 am
I absolutely love scuba diving. There is no time in my life that I am more at ease and at peace than when I am 60 feet underwater completely cut off from the “civilized” world. There is something magical about being weightless in the ocean, surrounded by creatures and places that most people will never have the chance to see up close.
May 24th, 2010 @ 10:29 am
These are the most beautiful and heart wrencing things I think I’ve ever read.
I love the feeling of fall. It’s indescribable, which i guess makes it very personal. One thing leaving, another on its way… the colors and smells are so brilliant and real. It reminds me that there is something bigger out there, and i feel insignificant – in a good way.
May 24th, 2010 @ 10:55 am
Would you consider me completely insane if I told you I love walking out into a full-on blizzard and that white silence of falling snow?… And then, when it’s over, and frost puts a sparkle on the snow and the moon comes out and that incredible bone-white light wraps the world.
What can I say. I’m the Winter Queen.
May 24th, 2010 @ 11:28 am
This thread is wonderful!
I’m amazed at how many of these comments are things that make me say, “Wow, me too!” Storms (I loved watching prairie thunderstorms as a kid), nature (I save worms too!), everything. I cry when I see dead animals on the side of the road. I sing to the birds and to my small garden. But I’m so grateful to have a garden, and to be able to hear the birds. This thread has brought tears to my eyes about every third comment!
I communicate with dogs really well, even though I don’t actually like most dogs. I howl very well, too. I have actually set off the neighborhood once or twice, howling! I used to have a German Shepherd who loved to howl with me.
I love haiku, and writing short poems focusing on moments in nature.
I’m terrified that I will one day suffer from horrendous pain. I’m far more afraid of pain than death. If I have to die, I’d rather pass on in my sleep; my absolute deepest fear is of dying alone and in pain.
Also: the Indian paintbrush isn’t the one I grew up with. I was always told that a certain wildflower was called Indian paintbrush: it’s sort of spiky, low growing, the flowers are like red flames, ranging from orange-red to brilliant fire engine red. They grow on the side of the roads all through my old home town in West Texas, and we get them on the roadside here in MS too.
It’s still gorgeous though.
May 24th, 2010 @ 11:40 am
hawk ~ re/ indian paintbrush: that’s exactly what this is. It’s the Wyoming state flower :)
May 24th, 2010 @ 11:41 am
I love the sound of morning when snow has fallen in the night. It’s like being wrapped in a cozy blanket.
I love watching my cat sleep.
I love fresh cherries.
I love babies’ wee toes. They look like peas in a pod!
May 24th, 2010 @ 1:40 pm
I love to dance. I did Irish step dance for years as a kid, but quit when I couldn’t handle it and school. Ten years later I’m out of shape and overweight and I miss it so much.
I’ve gotten a little obsessed with ballet recently. I’m slowly getting back into shape and hopefully I’ll be able to take a dance class soon.
May 24th, 2010 @ 2:28 pm
Sometimes i’m sitting in traffic, or walking along a crowded street, and I wonder about the thousands of people around me – I wish I could know their stories. This comment thread is kind of a wish come true. Thanks Shreve.
Also, I often wonder about you, and Charlie, and the Farmily, and all the shenanigans you’re all up to.
May 24th, 2010 @ 3:40 pm
I’m 28 and still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. I’m content to do any number of things, but I haven’t found what my passion is.
May 24th, 2010 @ 3:43 pm
I love taking pictures of strangers sleeping in trains, parking lots, public buses, etc. No matter what they always have that same innocent and vulnerable expression.
May 24th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm
We had our beloved German Shepherd, Jessie, cremated when she died. The vet put her ashes in a wonderful wooden box with her name engraved on a brass plate.
It sits in our bedroom, and I never go to bed without touching the box and saying goodnight to her. I still feel her.
May 24th, 2010 @ 5:50 pm
I saw this when you first posted it… but I was trying to think of just one thing.
I love not turning on the AC in my car. Living in the coastal south, you’d think that was impossible, but I love having the windows down no matter how hot it is. One of my favorite feelings in the world is driving home from the barn after a good ride, on a hot day, with all the windows down. The kind of day when I get so sweaty under my helmet, my hair is soaked. There’s dirt in the creases of my arms, all my muscles feel tired, and the wind just makes it so fantastic.
May 24th, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
I have a beagle who is the sweetest thing this side of heaven. It might seem a little weird but, his ears smell sooooo good!
May 24th, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
I’m continually fascinated by so many things; I guess I just have this constant insatiable hunger for more knowledge.
I’m a transplant to the midwest, and I miss Oregon terribly. Every time I visit Oregon, it’s like this dark weight has been lifted from my shoulders and my first breath upon stepping out of the airport is like breathing in new life again. It’s home!
I love burying my nose into my rabbit and taking in a giant breath of its fur. Rabbits smell so incredibly good.
May 24th, 2010 @ 10:14 pm
I have tiny white scars on my wrist from over 20 years ago. I think they’re beautiful.
I love opossums and skunks, especially the way they walk.
There are things in my past that make me so sad it hurts to breathe, and things in my present that make me so happy I can barely breathe.
My children and I frequently dance in the rain.
I wish more people knew how wonderful they are.
May 25th, 2010 @ 6:53 am
When she was young my daughter told her teacher that smelling her dog’s breath made her feel safe and happy.
May 25th, 2010 @ 7:36 am
Every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember I wake up earlier than everyone else, tiptoe out and take in the tree with the presents underneath. It is very important I have that private, quiet time to myself to appreciate and remember how very blessed I am. My parents have no idea I do this and I like it that way.
May 25th, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
i just have to say, that i’m so happy to hear that so many other folks are saying blessings for the dead animals they see at the edge of the road!!
May 25th, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
I let the sod laid by the previous owner in my back yard go wild. It’s 5 feet tall and beautiful! Like my own tiny patch of prairie. It makes me smile to think that something created to be a tame carpet underfoot has broken free, is living out its real cycle of life.
May 25th, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
I love my sister for raising me, but resent her for being better taken care of by my parents.
May 25th, 2010 @ 5:26 pm
What a great distraction to end the day with, Lovely! Such great energy you have started here Shreve.
My something most people don’t know is that I have a blankie…yup, just like when I was a kid…and can’t sleep well if it’s not draped over my shoulder (and I’m 45) :)
May 25th, 2010 @ 5:28 pm
I love Buster Brown Man dog. I’ve even asked him a number of times to marry me. Another friend has admitted to the same for her dog love, Blue. I love squeezing blackheads. This oil spill has me crazy with despair on a deep level. I love good wine, sometimes too much. I’m going to Molokai in June. Took all my clothes off for my Doctor Derm, today…no more melanoma for a year. Just lovely brown age spots spreading from so much sun over the years.
: ))
May 25th, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
I love digging in the dirt…plunging my hand deep into the dirt, running it through my fingers, patting it into place around a plant, inhaling the scent of freshly turned earth.
May 25th, 2010 @ 8:09 pm
Shreve:
Algebra and I have never gotten along,plain math no problem !
and I can count in french too, algebra: fuhgedaboutit.
like you I only use calculators under duress; checkbooks though require Quicken, they have to be to the penny or else.
Thanks for putting up with this old geezer from NH
May 25th, 2010 @ 9:08 pm
I just got through reading all these comments,you folks really contributed a lot of great stuff !! … Anastasia :learn to love who you are , think of the special person you are ,and not about your imagined flaws. … This old geezer has tons of flaws that are impossible to correct , and God forgives them always, do not strive to be perfect , just be the best you can and let the guilt go on it’s way.
May 25th, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
I love this.
I also love getting highlights put in my hair. wHEN SOMEONE ELSE BRUSHES MY HAIR, PAINTS THE DYE ONTO THE TINFOIL WHICH CRINKLES IN MY EAR. iT GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS.
May 26th, 2010 @ 8:04 am
I secretly believe in the “knight on the white horse”. I am 60 years old, and I am still waiting.
May 26th, 2010 @ 9:35 am
Patty, you made my day with your comment, and I believe your “knight” is out there!
May 26th, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
I learned this from singing (6 yrs),
By becoming a performer,I learned how to be fully present with myself while at the same time being genuinely open with the audience. My capacity for compassion ~for myself and others~ deepened through this process.
I learned the same things from training my own horse(5 yrs)& cattle herding with my dog(2 yrs).
May 26th, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
I am in heaven when my kitty is curled up in my lap purring to beat the band and he turns his head upside down and blinks at me as if to say “all is right with the world right now Mom” and you know – HE’s RIGHT!
May 26th, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
I love sitting in a cornner on my family’s farm and howl to the coyotes. I’ve howled to them sience i was little. But they had pups and left.
May 26th, 2010 @ 7:29 pm
When it’s raining and I’m driving, I like turning off the windscreen wipers when I am stopped at red lights (especially at night time). The world looks different through the droplets and neon lights look really cool.
May 27th, 2010 @ 2:57 am
Hawk and Shreve – Indian Paintbrush has about 200 species in the genus. So you are both right:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CASTI2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja
http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/plantoftheweek/articles/Indian_Paintbrush.htm
Wyoming’s state flower is just one of many many; Castilleja linariaefolia.
May 27th, 2010 @ 4:06 am
I love the sound of children laughing
May 27th, 2010 @ 8:04 am
My biggest fear is that I will fail TO TRY.
My “happy moments” are when my sugarglider (small flying squirrel looking marsupial) Tinkerbell lays in my lap on her back, getting her belly rubbed and falls asleep. She looks so blissful. Yes, I do snorgle all 5 ounces of her :)
I am 32 and still sleep with my teddy bear- his name is Ollie. Luckily my fiance doesn’t mind.
I hope that I continue to try new things all my life. I was 24 when I learned how to surf, 31 when I learned how to do equestrian vaulting and this year I want to take my first trapeze class.
My sister is the best mom ever, she raised me and I never seem to be able to find the words to express just how much she means to me. This year when I sent her a Mother’s Day present the card said “To the best Mom I know” and she said she cried :) My mom is still alive but she is bi-polar and my Dad owned 3 businesses growing up so she taught me to wash my hair, do my laundry and drive. She is only 3 years older than me.
Most shameful is that I don’t like my mother. I love her but she is a mean, vindictive person that constantly tries to put everyone down and make them as miserable as she is. She likes to be miserable and is unhappy when she has nothing to complain about. This is why her two children moved 1,000 miles away from her. Well, at least she will always have something to complain about now…
Most importantly…I LOVE my life :)
May 27th, 2010 @ 10:08 am
I love it when my cat sleeps beside me and reaches out a paw and rests it on top of my hand. I couldn’t love him more if I tried.
May 27th, 2010 @ 10:53 am
I’m still in love with a robot.
May 27th, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
I’ve read every single comment, and so many of them made my eyes well up. What a lovely bunch of people! I agree with so many of you! And on that note, here’s my “one”:
I’m one of the most sentimental and sensitive people I know, but after a childhood of relentless teasing and shame, I’ve put on a thick armor of indifference, sarcasm, and humor, too afraid for people to know how vulnerable I really am and take advantage of it.
Ok, one more. :) I love the ocean dearly. The sounds, the smells, the endless life within. My favorite activity is beach-combing. I live in north Texas and I very rarely get to see the ocean – maybe once every few years – because we can’t afford vacations. And it kills me.
May 27th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
Wow, what a wonderful thread!
So not only do I save worms, I save any bug/spider/creepy crawly in our house or on a sidewalk that might get smooshed..even when I am deathly afraid of it.
My son got an ant farm for his birthday, which totally depressed me. Then, for some reason, the ants started dying. The booklet said that was normal at first, but I just couldn’t stomach it. So, one night, I crept in his room, snuck out the farm, and set the rest of the ants free in the backyard. I felt so much peace after doing that, even though my son was totally devastated.
May 27th, 2010 @ 5:06 pm
I love blacksmithing! It’s not about anvil therapy (although that ROCKS!) and it’s definitely not about the noise or the power. I’m intrigued and fascinated by the way we can move metal, to free it from one form and coax it to take on another. I feel connected to artisans across the millennia because the tools and techniques we use today are largely the same as they’ve been for hundreds of years. (My website’s down for service til the end of June.)
May 27th, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
I love the feeling I get when all is reasonably right in my home- no dishes to be done, clothes are folded, floor is not too deep in husky hair, papers graded, I guess the feeling of “school’s out” that I get when the chores are finished or put off til tomorrow and me time is now. I can’t take me time until everything else is finished or at least not causing nagging cognitive dissonance, then I can ‘reward’ myself with some time to spin, or garden, or ride… I love me time.
May 27th, 2010 @ 9:12 pm
….left the old sod (Ireland) over thirty years ago but Gracie my English Pointer brings me back to the land every day and I never forget…and I smile
May 28th, 2010 @ 8:38 am
I love that early in the morning ~ about 10-15 minutes before my alarm goes off, my kitty will curl up in my neck or my arm pit and purr loudly. What a perfect way to wake up.
May 28th, 2010 @ 10:09 am
Back again. These truly are wonderful comments.
I just turned 50. I had a hard life growing up. I learned to work hard and to sacrifice. I know that some of my biggest dreams will not come true (becoming a doctor, living in Africa) for various reasons, but I’m OK with that. Instead, I have the deep resonant joy of a good man beside me, a normal, healthy family who love me, a job that helps society, ways to express my soul, finally having the horse I dreamed of as a kid, and the incomparably blessed anticipation of grandchildren.
I believe that these 2 statements will see me through the rest of life:
“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.” – Isak Dinesen
“Be kind whenever possible; it is always possible.” – the Dalai Lama
May 28th, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
I covet cute high heels. I’m a tall woman – 5’11” – and being two inches taller than the average woman, I’ve always hated the idea of adding more inches to my height. I’m also a major tomboy who owns ONE skirt. But when I see a sexy or cute pair of heels, the girly girl in me wants to throw out the sneakers and jeans and throw on a cute skirt and a kick ass pair heels and celebrate being a girl!
May 30th, 2010 @ 1:30 pm
A few people know this, but here I am telling Shreve’s world: I named my little girl after Shreve. Such admiration for an independent, animal loving, sprited, intelligent woman.
(Victoria and Aunt Judi say hi!)
May 30th, 2010 @ 2:53 pm
I love traveling. No matter where I am, in the total wild of nature or the total wild of a city, I am happy and in love. I am pretty sure that no matter where you put me I would feel at home. I also love meeting and getting to know new people. I believe that every single person has a lesson to teach that no one else, anywhere or in any time, could teach. I just wish I had the courage to learn those lessons.
May 31st, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
i develop deep personal relationships with books, and cannot borrow from a library because i suffer separation anxiety when it comes time to give it back. so i spend a small fortune every year on used books and new books. and i am out of room for books. and yet, i don’t have enough. i’ve read them all and love them all and will re-read them again and again. print will never be dead, as long as they find their way to my house.
June 1st, 2010 @ 6:55 am
This has been a wonderful post! The comments are fascinating!
Some things I love:
Getting lost in a great book
Life with my dogs
Spending time all by myself with no other humans (or their buildings) nearby
Watching the lawn sprinkler going back and forth/back and forth/ it is so soothing!
When I can, having my morning coffee as I watch the sun rise over the ocean
Shreve, I also love all your blogs. Some of your insights just amaze me. You are wise beyong your years!
June 2nd, 2010 @ 6:14 pm
I love walks in the woods with my dogs and husband.
I love the calm after a good storm and the way the air smells.
I love to say somethings off the wall and surprize people, which then makes them laugh.
I love the sound of my neighbors kids playing outside my window.
Most of all of love Friday nights when I can reach over and turn off my alarm clock.
June 4th, 2010 @ 7:23 pm
I made a pact with the trees on my property: If they protect me, I’ll protect them.
I leave snags standing for woodpecker and squirrel/chipmunk habitat.
I caw to the ravens who fly overhead when no one is around, hoping to get a call-and-response. I’ve gone outside at night and replied to the coyote calls. Once or twice, I believe I got it right and we had a conversation. Someday I’d like to know what we said.
I cry for animals killed on the side of the road and apologize to their spirits for human carelessness.
I’ve only achieved true Zen while scuba diving.
I pity humans who think of pets as secondary to humans, or consider them replacable commodities.
I leave at least half of the berries on the bush, and gladly share half the bounty with wildlife. I don’t understand deer/rabbit/bird netting.
There is no greater joy in life than setting a healthy wild animal free.
My pets are the only children I ever wanted, and they’re more effective than Xanax.
I don’t tell my husband nearly often enough how lucky I am that he chose me.
June 21st, 2010 @ 3:25 pm
Balsa wood makes me think of the $.15 airplanes my father would buy for me to play with in the field while he worked. As an adult, I now work in a building that overlooks that same field, and I think of my father, those many years ago.
June 29th, 2010 @ 11:14 pm
I’m late to the party, but I feel like this belongs here.
I love small, compact, efficient things. I like tiny electronics that will fit in my purse and do all kinds of amazing things in their tiny casings. I want to live in a tiny one room house in the woods. I want to have just the right amount of everything and not a smidgen more, and I want it all to fit into a Felix the Cat magic bag that I can unfold wherever I go, and then pack back up again when I leave and carry it out on my arm.
When I want to make a change in my life, I buy things for my new life the way I want it to be. But I never change anything else. So my new life is well furnished, but nobody is home. I’ve wasted a lot of money this way.
I sleep nose to nose with my cat. He puts his head on my pillow. Whenever I turn over in bed, I think it offends him, and he turns his back on me too.
July 18th, 2010 @ 8:10 pm
I have very bad flat feet. No matter how much I want to be a naturalist, I cannot be and never will be.
July 18th, 2010 @ 8:14 pm
Also. I love cooking with fire, but don’t want a barbecue. I’ve made one of those little popcan alcohol stoves and once in a while roast small things on it.
May 2nd, 2011 @ 4:05 am
Sometimes I wish that I was disconnected from everyone & everything I am connected to now, even if only for a short while. I could take risks and adventures and not have to worry about it affecting any one but me. Also to experience those connections forming, or to realize their existence, would be a wonderful experience to have again.
Thank you Shreve for bringing about a question that makes us take a closer look at ourselves :)
October 8th, 2011 @ 10:17 am
I love to ride my bike.
June 27th, 2012 @ 11:04 am
I became a crazy cat lady. Not by choice, but by the ferals that found me 7 years ago and demanded I love and care for them. I have no regrets despite the time, money and emotional attachment that is required.
I also adore riding my bike.
January 28th, 2013 @ 9:11 am
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October 21st, 2016 @ 1:52 am
I regret not going to school to be a nurse…I know that I still could go at age 52, but it would be alot harder. I am always the first at accident scenes, the first to wipe blood up or stitch up someone or something with my needle and thread, but just goofed off and never went to school. Stupid, stupid me!