Thinking tonight of enthusiasms. The woman at Paris Breakfasts is back in Paris, shooting deliriously colorful photos of the shop windows and foods she will paint on some future day. I love her photos even more than her watercolors (which I keep telling myself I’m going to buy, someday). I’m attending a conference for magazine writers, because I’m interested in the subject and it is being held in Boulder, so I could attend without much effort, and it’s been amazing. I love being a beginner, listening with this entirely different part of my brain. I love the learning and the possibilities presented and the stories (always stories, stories), but most of all, I love being in the midst of people who are so passionate. The photo editor of National Geographic is here, leggy and slim and smart, a woman who has dodged bullets and given birth to daughters and loves photojournalism so much it’s like sparks come from her when she speaks of it. She made me want to write about her. Two young women next to me were in thrall, nearly speechless with the idea that it would ever be possible to shoot photos for the venerable National Geographic, and on the other side, a woman spoke of beginning her first novel, and a newspaper reporter yearned to leave the paper and write full-time. A writer of story lines for computer games (how cool is that job??) wants to write articles about history. I felt quiet and lucky.
It’s also always good to be in a college town, where hope and expectation are basic molecules in the daily air, right alongside oxygen. There is happiness in hope, in believing in the next thing, whatever it might be. A friend of mine said that people only need two things to be happy–something to look forward to and a dream to believe in. Here in this hotel this weekend, the air feels quite thick with those two things.
So, what little gratitudes can you come up with? And what little (or big) thing are you looking foward to?
I lived in Boulder when I was a little girl, and one of the unique things I remember about the mid 70s there is the streakers! I guess they had the two things they needed to be happy and didn’t need clothing. 😉
I am grateful for ending a 6-week bout of contract work tomorrow. I’ve worked 110 hours in the last 10 days, and I’m looking forward to getting back to my full-time writing more than anything! My son will appreciate the college tuition money, though. That’s important, too.
I enjoyed your Italy posts!
LOL on the streakers! I remember that.
And enjoy the rest after such a long haul.
Boulder is always, still, so amazingly beautiful. I love visiting, though I’m not sure I’d want to LIVE there.
I enjoy reading your posts. And I’m just curious…what conference was that? Is it annual? It sounds like it would be an interesting one to attend.
Kari, I’ll post about the magazine conference in a day or two. It really was interesting and informative, and a good source of income for writers who are sensible and know what they’re about.