[2] A blanket saved my marriage

[2] Remember snuggies?

You'll never catch me in a snuggy. But I was recently gifted a heated blanket and I do believe it could save marriages. The thermostat is yours, babe. <3

But this newsletter is mine. So let's get into it.

[pebbles]

A jar of pebbles sits on my bookshelf.A place holder. Paperweight. I pay it no mind. When my daughter was young, I'd hear the scratch of Velcro as she fished rocks from her shoes on our car rides home. "For mommy,” she'd say.The first gift she'd ever given me - a rock.

It soon became ritual. digging in shoes, pulling from pockets, the gifting of pebbles.

But orders were announced: Empty your shoes. A school-wide ban. Did other mothers have jars of treasured pebbles, too?

Our drive home felt like a getaway car. Hiding until the coast was clear. Rides filled with hushed declarations."Mommy, look." "...I snuck this for you."

My little thief. And so it continued. Each pebble placed carefully into the jar. Her act of treachery, an act we shared.Together.Ours.Special.

/

Days turned into months. Pebbles collected, now pebbles forgotten. The jar sits as it has for years. Untouched.

My daughter is older, wiser, kinder, yet pebbles continue to make their way here.These days, without intention. Scooped up in a game of chase. Wedged between socks and soles. Nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

We dump them onto sidewalks and driveways.We toss them into trashcansand parking lots. Quickly discarded. Quickly forgotten.I wonder if everything ordinary starts as something special.I worry that I am just biding my time.

Comedic Relief?I gravitate so strongly to humor, not only in the ways that I use it, but also towards the humor from those around me. My fondness for people has always been tied strongly to their wit. An instant connection. A shared language.But try as I have, I've never been able to properly articulate why being funny is so impactful. Then, I stumbled upon this roundtable discussion where two women communicated everything I've never been able to put into words:

"I think sometimes when things are funny and buoyant, the air gets kind of crackly and you forget what existence is..." - Natasha Lyonne"It takes us further away from death." - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Comedy takes us further away from death...I'm not sure that we require laughter for survival, in the most primitive sense of the word. But in order to be alive, I think we do.

I'm late to the party, as this song was released mid-2016. But you know what they say... better six years later than never. This one track has sent me down the path of their entire discography. Down the rabbit hole I go.

If they make you laugh, keep them close.Until next time. - cd