All the Forms it Takes

My husband arrives home with a little bag from a bookstore that he dangles in front of me like fishing bait as I drop cookie dough onto the baking sheet.  I'm making chocolate chip cookies for all the children running around here. It's a rainy day, and there's nothing better than the smell of baking cookies that you deliver, warm and gooey from the oven, into their tiny grasping hands.

(I've already had three of these cookies with a tall glass of milk. I tell myself I'll eat healthy meals next week after July 4th. I've decided this because I know for a fact that tomorrow the whole family will feast on fried chicken, lemon meringue pies, blackberry cobbler, deviled eggs, more fried things, and more buttery things. They'll be homemade ice-cream and all sorts of grilled sandwiches with all those Southern Fillings. Folks do it right 'round here. It would be wrong to deny myself this kind of lovin'.)

Inside the bag, I find the book I've been waiting to read. (It's the book that comes before Belong to Me called Loved Walked In.)

I know he drove to another town to get this book because the bookstore in town had sold their copies.

"I had time to spare, and I thought this would help you rest and relax." Oh, my love language! Oh, my dear, sweet husband!  I don't need diamonds; I need books. Books and fried things.

Before I curl up to read, I walk around like a waiter holding my chocolate chip cookie platter. I find anyone around and offer up the treats. I believe the cookies will bring a little joy. Cookies do that, they really do.

I check my email messages a little later and find that my friend, Elaine, has sent me a link to an adorable turtle video in which the turtle chases a ball around with a dog. I smile and feel so loved that she would think of me.

So here I am, in a little cocoon of love where grandmas cook, husbands drop books into my hands, moms bake cookies, and friends share turtle videos. There's love to pass around today in whatever form it takes. I give it and I receive it. We build the whole rainy day on it.