What I Expect

Cheese, please

To work hard, which is to say, to labor hard. Maybe harder than most, certainly less hard than some.

To eat well. Cream from the jar, berries from the bush, potatoes from the soil, mushrooms from the forest.

To be tired by nightfall. To sleep well. To not set an alarm. To wake most mornings before full light.

To earn a small living doing what I love and to let that be enough.

To have friends.

To remember that the only way I’ll ever have everything I want is not by the accumulation of things but rather by the erosion of wants.

To sometimes forget this.

To watch my boys grow. Not from a distance, but close up. Alongside me. To be devastated when they leave.

To slow down, both by choice and by circumstance.

To become wiser (this might be asking a bit much).

To support Penny and to need her support.

To lose things I never imagined losing.

To gain things I never imagined gaining.

In other words, to be surprised.