(1) Slept profusely for the second night in a row, sleeping in till 7:30 in the morning, when I normally get up at four.  I’m feeling rested and looking forward to a good run today.

(2) Pleasantly chasing my morning doppio with a robust cup of coffee at a peaceful community cafe.

(3) Surviving my 70th birthday without a hitch, I am happy to have been welcomed by other aging people in the community, including several retired professors, successful retired members of my church, and journalists & musicians keeping at it, despite the throes of age.

(4) Reconnecting with my former singing student Tessa has been an unexpected blessing, even moving the man to tears.  Grateful for tears, either of joy or of sorrow.  They don’t happen very often to this son of a military man, but when they do spring forth, I am cleansed.

(5) Grateful to be resting on Saturday, after struggling to meet a self-imposed deadline yesterday, even to the point of working five hours without stopping, skipping both dinner and my daily run.  Though I awoke with a keen awareness of unresolved issues in my work, it did not take too long for me to wake to the beauty of the Sabbath. I am blessed to keep this day holy, knowing that the unresolved issues will be resolved in my unconscious mind, and that come sundown, I will gladly work again.  God is Good.

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” — Charles Dickens