first draft: "ENOUGH" Lacking connection, missing people, and vanishing events. Empty roads in the morning and shadowed store windows where once bustling and summer-tinged tourists walked. I am lacking my people. Missing a job and a purpose to “clock into” every day. But there’s more fresh air. There is time to slow down and notice the caterpillars that sleep in my roses. I know the first names of all the birds that fly through my backyard. I know the names of my neighbors, even remember their birthdays, the shared, colorful (shining like jewels) fruits and veggies of our gardens gifted to one another on doorsteps and shared fence lines. In a season of lack, I have a roof to shelter me from the sun and a garden to enjoy it in. There is time to know the flora and fauna. There is so much to miss, a presence-of-others sized hole in my heart but what I have is ENOUGH. Being on a first-name basis with the neighborhood is enough. Lost importance, lack of purpose, found purpose to enough importance. Abundant gifts of thoughts and encouragement are enough. Sidenote: I almost went down a very dark path with this word. As in, like, "Enough already!!!!!!!" There have been a lot of moments about that recently. It's been like a year of headdesks.
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