with a winged heart

today i am filled with meaning.

last night i had a brief lapse in my certainty that i am a person of meaning, who is doing good in the world, and i flagged in my resolve to be positive in my looking-ahead. i felt lowdown, knocked down, and stretched thin. i thought, maybe i can't do all of this. this morning started off a bit rough with an alarm that didn't hit me in the eardrum as planned and a late start, then a car parked partially in front of our driveway resulting in a banged in door on the van and a scrape of paint that looks like a smear of blood from a low budget zombie film. fingers, dragging down the side.

that said, i rewound.
called work, took a few minutes to start the morning over, picked up a soy mocha on the way to the couv and listened to tMG and john vanderslice on the way. looked at the sun on the columbia river and even if my mind was half asleep, i was taking it in.

checked my email today and got this lovely, unexpected note from a tMG forumite and zoop attendee who also got a couple copies of my "going to watkins glen" zine while at farm sanctuary, and is apparently putting her extra copy to good use.

so i left one of my two copies of your zine on the kitchen table downstairs with the hopes that my parents would look at it and i received this email this morning:

K---,

After reading Starling "zine" last night,
when I tried to eat my lite yogurt this AM,
I felt nauseous and decided to throw all those gelatin-filled yogurts out.
I don't like to "waste" money but I think I have been converted now.

Thank you.
Love, Mom
aww! thanks, starling.

no, dear, thank YOU for this incredibly well-timed and sweet reminder that i am doing this for a reason. i really needed that today. and thanks, kw's mom, for deciding to not just read my zine, but to take in the story and send it back out into the world in a new way. i love it, i appreciate it, and i am grateful for this moment.

filled with gratitude.

today i am going to walk through downtown on my lunch break and take time to find a place where i can get vegan lunch, all. i will be reporting back on what i find, and i hope that i can find something tasty.

for kw and her wonderful mom:

wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
-kahlil gibran