Working hard without hope of recognition or personal gain is a great virtue.  Honesty in all things and fairness to all people is the mark of a true leader.  Double-check facts and call to confirm reservations.  Laugh at your own foibles.  Self confidence amidst a sea of infidels and fools is a skill hard to hone, but so valuable to hold.  When management doesn’t respond and the water is too hot, pry the mechanical door off its hinges and readjust the hot water heater yourself.  Be abundantly generous with those you love, for time is precious.  Have a glass of wine or two at home before dinner, and really talk to one another.  Distance is no object when it’s real love at stake; togetherness trumps a phone call, no matter the cost or short duration. Find humor and lightness in a world that is so often grey.  Lessons from dad.

Rain is good for the complexion.  Sometimes a good hug makes everything better. Live life outside of your comfort zone; adventures await, even on metrobuses in the hood.  Look for the joy in little things, as the world holds so much beauty that so often goes unseen. The Eating By Color cookbook is, quite simply, amazing.  It is possible to find practical walking shoes that are also cute. Appreciate the finer things in life, but realize that happiness isn’t found in that which is material.  Chart your own course and make your own decisions, but do so with a level head and reasoned judgment.  Be glad our culture does not condone arranged marriages.  A cheerful attitude changes everything.  Always carry purel—life’s germy. There’s no place like home.  Lessons from mom. 

Brief glimpses and rememberances of what it used to be like brings homesickness on quickly. Looking for editorial jobs in Seattle on craigslist only makes this worse. There’s nothing like family, quirky as they are; there’s something invaluable about knowing and seeing where exactly you’re from.  Age accumulates, so fast. We’re none of us getting younger.  Appreciating advancement and change is bittersweet.  Anxiety and nervous anticipation of the inevitable is a poor use of energy; time is so much better spent in grateful appreciation of all that’s been given. Independence and self-reliance is a skill to cherish, but at the end of the day, it’s just one tool in a crowded box.  A weekend is never long enough.  Lessons.