Delights

Today there were two seemingly insignificant occurrences that made me happy. The first was getting an email from a former colleague from Belgium. She quit working at the library on the NATO base to become a woodworker. A total career change, something she was excited for, and I was very happy for her. We also had a shared appreciation of sheep. At the time I had some Converse sneakers with sheep on them – my sheep shoes – that’s how we got to talking about sheep. She had plans to go to a Faroe Islands where there are more sheep than humans. One of the last emails I sent to her before we left Belgium was about people in the Faroe Islands wanting Google to film sheep view for Google Streets. So, I was so delighted this morning to see her email with pictures of donkey nannies from Italy, the donkey’s are used to carry lambs. I love the pictures and the story and the fact that she thought of me.

The second happy thing was just a preying mantis (just a small one about an inch and a half) that rode on the hood of our old CRV for about 15 miles. After one stop it moved from the top of the hood and took refuge behind the windshield wiper. When we got home, I told it to behave and not start anything. And as a mantis will do it turned its head to me and sort of waved.