To dance on the edge
Between pain and joy
Between the length and the brevity of life
To fill your life with moments
To have a routine
To break the routine
The delight of friendship
The joy of a long conversation
Over cookies and hot chocolate
Who needs drugs and alcohol when you have baked sugar?!

Oh the soothing balm of books 
The joy of wandering through the shelves
The smell of the pages 
The knowledge contained within
Wanting to read everything all at once 
Finding an Ali Smith book
I don't remember reading
And treating myself 
​To her words. 

To wander through Central Park
On a chilly, drizzly April day
The daffodils! The magnolias! The blossoms! 
The lupines! The tulips! 
The grand beauty of it all 
Whispering a thank you
To those visionary souls
Who saw fit to ensure green
(The kind that circulates oxygen and carbon dioxide
Not the kind that circulates poverty and greed)
Amidst the industrial landscape 

The wonder of Shaina Taub
Writing and composing and starring in her own show
The contents of which are
Empowering and moving and uplifting and infuriating
The weaving of stories of so many women
Daring to tackle intersectionality
Daring women to take up space
Daring women to swear
You don’t want it to end
You want the storytelling to keep going
Show us where we are today
We’re still fighting
For autonomy over our bodies
Our paychecks
Our very existence
Produced by Hilary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai
Remember meeting Malala in London
What a life she has led
Could she ever have imagined she would produce a musical about women’s suffrage?!
Musical theatre royalty on the stage
Being awed and humbled and inspired by it all

A beautiful morning run
Warm enough to not need a jacket
The blossoms and magnolias and daffodils in full bloom
Even the tulips are starting to turn their heads

To step out on to the street
With your neighbors 
Literal and metaphorical
And glance up at the sky 
The air is noticeably colder 
But also warmer
Strangers sharing a historic moment 
Passing the glasses around 
So each one can see 
The light is different 
We explain how it works to one another 
Confirm what we know
Make new discoveries 
The extraordinary magic of a total eclipse 
Making it all visible. 

Tonight we gathered
And ate pizza
And salt and vinegar chips 
And drank homemade margaritas 
And cackled as we read a truly terrible, god awful, script
And we sang Broadway karaoke  
And traded stories
And laughed some more
In honor of our dear friend's birthday
And what a wonderful evening it was. 

Another Too Good to Go bag
This time, a bag of fruit and veg 
I passed a family with three small children
Two boys, maybe 5 and 4,
And a little girl, still a baby 
Barely 2 
Mama begging with an empty pizza box
"Would you like some fruit?" I asked 
"Solo español" she replied 
"Quisieras frutas?"
"Si. Gracias." 
I gave her all the mandarins I could find in the bag
The little girl
"Gracias! Gracias!"
Her radiant beaming smile 
What has her mama endured to get her here
To the streets of New York? 

Returning to the Kit Kat Club
This time in New York
This time as an usher
The adrenalin of working a show you've never worked before
In a brand new space 
With all new logistics
How gorgeous it looks
The thrill of it 
The theatricality of it
Getting to feel a part of it 
Even though you long to be on stage
And to paint your face
And wear fabulous costumes 
And to dance to that glorious music 
But for now you're in the room...
And how joyous it is 

Sometimes you feel like 
A juicy burger and fries 
And you find a little 
Greasy spoon kind of place
Down the road
And it just
Hits the spot