Ten things

In 7th grade, I’d sit under my comforter writing lists of things I wanted to do someday. I’m pretty sure ride a horse across a field was always on the list, along with be the caterer for the Yankees’ clubhouse. And fly over the Rocky Mountains. I aimed for the sky, I tell you.

I still like lists, and sometimes I still write goal lists, but usually I write excessive amounts of grocery lists and shopping lists and library book lists, and gleefully press too hard when checking them off. Make and freeze soup. Check! Call Fife Council. Check! Candy corn? No check. Frownie. It's nowhere to be found in Scotland.

The thing I have realized is that right at this moment, I am living above the top item on any list of dreams I've ever written. Love has found me, and because of His love, and his, I will never be the same.

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About a year ago, I scrawled this (mind you, I probably had dough dried to my wrists and my ponytail was slipping out):
I haven’t journaled in weeks, and I don’t even care. All I can think of is this week being done so I can be with Walker.

I recently found that, and although it is melodramatic in the extreme, it reminds me that where I am now I have not always been. And so, in a nod to lists and love, here is my list of ten things I loved about this weekend (in no special order):

  1. The sky. Scotland’s sky is low, expansive, and always crowded with assorted clouds. Halloween sky? Check!
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and you can find it in the puddles, too.

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  1. Cool plants. Don’t know what they are, but I’m a fan of the colours. And that they were growing out of cement. Ach, you go, highland weeds!
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  1. Light. (How much more esoteric can I get than that, right?) We power-walked it down to the beach around 5:30 to catch the sun. We ended up catching the town lit like a birthday cake.
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  1. Reminiscing. Our first long chat (that ended near Hamilton Hall) started on this platform sticking into the sea. I may have been hopping like a jumping bean in the cold out there, but I was utterly enthralled by him (and still am).
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  1. You knew it was coming: the beach. I could proliferate, but I’ll spare you. It's spectacular.
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  1. Beautiful places. Sometimes you need a place where you are together, looking around you and saying, “That’s beautiful!” and “Isn’t that so cool?” This is ours.
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  1. Cheese. I was never a cheese-lover until a friend worked in this shop. About thirty free samples and 10% Student Discount Tuesdays later, I am whole-heartedly a cheese addict, and have dragged Walker along (he's a good sport). The store may be a bit damp, but the cheeses are utterly ambrosial. Our new like is an aged Comte. But nothing will ever compare to my hallowed aged goats' Landana, like toffee in a cheese form. Oh. SO. good. Walker has long teased me I’ll end up a cheese-monger. I'd be ok with that. (We can't keep the Comte or Landana long enough to take a photo of, so the cheeses shown are just a parm reggiano, bufalo mozz and a Tomme de chevre.)
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  1. Saturday date night. Classic as Coca cola: pizza and an American movie.
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  1. Scary Halloween faces. If you scroll down, you will never be the same.
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  1. Talking and walking and being with Walker. Life is more fun together, every time. We like it.
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