"The list", or things that make sense in a world full of madness and beauty

Here are the things I understand:

• laughter, the delirious kind that happens in the middle of the night at sleepovers, or the kind that makes your stomach hurt, or causes you to snort, or pee your pants. most especially, the kind that makes other people laugh.
• sunlight, particularly through clouds right as you walk underneath them, or through thin sheets of rain in the summer time, or gleaming off of snowbanks so brightly you can hear them sparkle
• children, their love and resilience, their fragility, and bravery. their wonder. the pure aching miracle of them
• my ability to take miracles for granted
• fresh squeezed orange juice
• the crispy edges of pancakes, cooked in coconut oil, dipped in maple syrup. best on a chilly, Saturday morning in February.
• childbirth
• miscarriages
• grandmothers who pass away in old age. the surprising coldness of embalmed skin.
• cold water on naked skin, freckles, goosebumps, beauty marks, stretch marks.
• lollipop lipstick
• kindness so small it can barely be seen, except by angels standing in corners
• ghost stories, not the content, but the compulsion- the need- to tell them, and hear them.
• sex; the urge and the act, not biology
• reincarnation
• friendship so beautiful and daring, it splits your heart open like a good book, and makes you known to yourself.
• wildflowers