Here's to you...

So-- no Scorched Haven tonight, because tired. But I'll be editing tomorrow and in desperate need of some fiction writing, so look for it then.

Now, in the last few years, really, I've noted that I've kept more and more of myself and my private life back from online. A lot of this is to protect the people I know in real life, and while it was hard at first, I'm not sorry I've gotten better at discretion--it was a long overdue skill.

But today, as I was talking to friends and family, I was overcome by a surge of admiration for so many people--I wanted to shout out ALL THE PEOPLE--but they would not want to be so shouted. So I'm going to leave you with this:

Here's to Mates who fall in holes while being Easter Bunnies and kids who look for eggs even though they're pretty sure mom and dad hid them.

Here's to Moms who do the holiday thing one more time, because they don't want that last bit of their kids' childhood to disappear.

Here's to Dads who suck up the expense because, dammit, they want to see their kids happy, and moms who budget and make room and pull miracles out of thin air so they don't give Dad an aneurism.

Here's to people who don't celebrate Easter and who put up with the rest of us and our eggs and our bunnies and traditions from our childhoods that we're not quite willing to ditch. (Or who just like the idea that it really is a pagan holiday, masked as a conservative Christian tradition.)

Here's to the people who make Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which get us through.

Here's to people who have lost someone, and who had to endure this day alone.

Here's to young men and women with hearts too sore to people with their families today, who hid away so others didn't see their pain.

Here's to people who've had their lives thrown in upheaval and couldn't possibly do one more goddamned minute in a crowd--but who were grateful for the time they managed.

Here's to playful friends who put up with random jokes and silly pictures because sleep deprivation finally caught up with me and all of my weirdness spilled over into texts and off-color puns.

Here's to the people with minds like labyrinths who found the door today to come out and visit with the rest of us.

Here's to missing friends and family whom we wish were here, just once, sometime in the spring.

Here's to the folks who always host the gatherings who wish their kids would get their shit together so someone else could clean the fucking house.

Here's to exhausted dogs who got to play outside all day, and who brought the rest of us joy.

Here's to Moms who don't usually cook but who cook on holidays and really frickin wish that just one damned Easter we could send out for pizza.

Here's to the whole laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, hiding, hugging, energetic, exhausted lot of us, who try so very hard to brave another turn around the sun, another marker of our mortality, another family gathering, another moment alone or in pain, another moment surrounded by too many people, another moment screaming inside...

Because somewhere in all of the tumult, we all remember, pray for, hope for, dream for, long for, believe in...

Moments of peace and love.

Namaste and Blessed Solstice and Happy Easter

Amy