Terrible Beauty and Blue Ivy

I'm rereading When Wanderers Cease to Roam, taking in the illustrations, memories, and quirky musings one month at a time. I love so much about the January chapter...the way Swift makes the bitter seem surprisingly thoughtful, the barren somehow unsuspectingly full of life, the muted grays, richly vibrant. Most importantly, I love how her words and sketches seem like a secret to which only she and the reader are privy; the thoughtfulness, the life, the vibrancy, a pact between two best friends.

A few pages into the January chapter, Swift describes "Small pleasures worth staying home for"...
"*Sipping a cup of lapsang souchong tea that tastes like January: Deep, Dark, Bitter ~ Like smoke from an ancient fire.
*A blizzard: Big fistfuls of snow falling from the sky for 10 hours ~ Beautiful and terrible, but mostly beautiful.
*Remembering bluebirds and warmer days: A kingfisher on Key West, an Abyssinian Roller on the Sahara, Peacocks in the Jordan Valley.
*Sewing in the company of a cat.
*Humming a sad song on a solitary walk on a cold day ~ but not feeling sad."

Here are a few of my own...
*Spending a Sunday morning eating Beer Bread French Toast and drinking a pot of surprisingly perfect coffee (despite doing the exact same thing every morning, sometimes it's just a lot better than others)...and doing this just for myself. Why should we have to have guests to enjoy a special breakfast?
*Opening the curtains, sitting on my love seat, the one just big enough for Wendell and me, and using the natural light to read a few pages of WWCTR and The Essential Agrarian Reader.
*Cleaning out closets and bookshelves and feeling a sense of relief, rather than sadness, to see moments from - and artifacts of - a different life carefully placed in Goodwill-bound bags.
*Looking out the double sliding doors to scope out trees I want to draw today, doors that are given character by evidence of puppy nose curiosity.
*Writing in my Caroline-gifted "Q&A a day 5-Year Journal" with the Fran-gifted ink pen that I absolutely adore.
*Humming a sad song on a solitary walk on a cold day ~ but not feeling sad.

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My new pen:
That's right, the pen is comfortably resting on top of The Art of Piddling (the hard copy of Pillow Book).
And yes, that is one-shoulder, black-leotarded Beyonce on the cover. I am still firmly convinced that she, Jay-Z, and I would be best friends. Congratulations on the new arrival, pals.
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What are your small pleasures worth staying home for?