these days create us

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

He could say something as unassuming as “I’m going to turn off the light in the kitchen if nobody minds,” but I could sense the passive aggressiveness in his tone and shoot back something equally negative. Like any two persons whose characters were like carbon copies, we fought constantly, and I suspect my mother’s genes had no place in me due to the strength of my father’s. But looking at him, I couldn’t help loving him more. The way his salt and pepper beard would move while he chewed his cheese and crackers. His stoop and walk that somehow seemed owl-y to me. His wrinkly fingers and the way his round pale green eyes exactly like my own would peer over his glasses. But especially the when he’s in the kitchen at three o’clock brewing his espresso talking in that gruff sleepy voice about what a great nap he just had.

Love someone who is kinder to you than you are to yourself.

Hindsight

…to be loved / and found magical, / like a secret…