All the Good Things

By Andrea Scarpino

 

Many years ago when I was struggling through an unpleasant break-up, my friend Gracie drew me a picture of my cat, my apartment, hearts, smiling faces. Across the top of the page, she wrote, “Andrea, these are all the good things.” She was 6 or 7 years old.

 

Yesterday, I cried at my desk after a particularly hard phone call. “Everything sucks,” I typed into Google Images—my best teenager impersonation. And then I went to buy wine. And after the wine store, I crossed the street to buy a bouquet of tulips, orange-pink bursts of color. And at the flower shop, I found small terrarium plants and moss to fill four hanging globes we often use for tea lights. And I came home again, and turned on the radio, and planted the plants in their new globe homes, and texted with friends who were kind. And Zac and I went for a run.

And everything sucks. And these are all the good things:

 

1. Wine that is full and rich, that streaks the glass dark red.

 

2. Terrarium plants hanging in a window, green leaves poking from each globe’s opening.

 

3. Green tea sweetened with stevia.

 

4. The sky. And people who watch the sky, who know the scientific names of clouds, who care about stars, asteroids. People who understand that “Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded,” as Lawrence Krauss says.

 

5. Apple trees white with blossoming.

 

6. Baby elephants. Seriously.

 

7. People who care enough about food to slice carrot after carrot into exactly the same size and shape, bake cookies with homemade butter, cure bright yellow lemons just to have them on hand. People who sit for hours savoring every bite of a meal. Who will remake an espresso if it’s not perfect.

 

8. Handwritten cards. Packages that arrive in the mail unexpectedly.

 

9. Beautifully designed poetry books and music albums.

 

10. Handmade jewelry.

 

As my friend Courtney says, “The world is a terrible place. And chocolate chip cookies are delicious.”