friday present: from sneezing to reciprocity.

I'd like to propose a late morning coffee toast to Saturday: the new Friday. Thank you all so much for your kind, supportive notes. I've managed to weather the hiccups of the week, showing few bruises. And I sure could use a little gratitude trip. 

Right now I'm thankful for these little things...

A good sneeze.

{lavender}

You know sometimes there's that sneeze that sneaks up on you half way (ah-ah-ah) several times, before you're able to let 'er choooo. I've had one of those for a couple days now, and it's such a relief to finally sneeze the ah-ah-ah out out out! 

Plus it's nice to be blessed afterward. Most of our sneeze blessings have to do with health. In Spanish we say: Salud! meaning health. In Turkish it's çok yaşa! Which essentially wishes the sneezer a long life. The sneezer replies sen de gör. Roughly meaning: may you see (a long life) too.

Last night's massage that finally loosened that knot from my shoulder.

{breathe}

Trapped sneezes, persistent kinks... what gives? My body seems to be clenching in on itself. Time to breathe and release.

Do overs. 

{yarn by abby powell}

The good thing is, we can just drop it. Let go of what needs to be released and stop resisting what *is* (aka whatever it is we're fighting against). It just takes some practice, because clenching is one of our closet human habits. 

I started crocheting my first blanket. And, if changing yarn color every row wasn't already complicated enough. The pattern I chose required counting. Suddenly the half moons, never meant to overlap, started snaking up on each other like two kittens curling up into each other for warmer sleep. I pulled out the five rows and am looking into something more my style: yarn minus the math.

Bloglines. 

Oh, beauties, it's OK to break out the bubbly and toast to yourself! This week I finally received lovely Carrie's snail mail post: The adventures of Cuppie continue, stay tuned! Getting mail down here takes a while. I always get it, (except for that one time a long time ago...) And as it turns out, the knock at the door sounds just as I am starting to feel a little anxious. 

I won my first giveaway, from the beautiful sisters Catherin and Mary Chris of Pretty Pleased! A perfectly versatile and cute and "not too useless" tank from Mink Pink. Can't wait to find this pretty number in my mail box, hopefully in time for our little beach-cation. More on that soon. 

And thanks to Melissa at the super cute blog Oh, My Darling, I have three new pen pals. I like how these virtual connections start to lead to more physical glue, glitter and pretty penned connections. If you're interested in scribbling sweet nothings to strangers, visit Dear Darlings and sign up.

The reciprocal act of giving and thanking.  

 {sunflower by dijea}

Each gratitude journey quiets my thoughts some, creates space in the clutter of mindmuck. Readier to face the clean day with clarity. On the slate for today: teach an English class, make some headway with translation and swim in correspondences. If we're lucky, it'll end with a cheesecake baked in time for a long Sunday brunch. 

What's on your happy list for today? 

{unattributed photos: unknown : please let me know if they're yours!}