Being present when your youngest daughter gets married,and having a good camera on your phone since you forgot the other camera,and being present to hear her giggle when she hears her new husband say his vows--a priceless experience!

picnics with chocolate cake, fried chicken, and potato salad;

airplanes when their engines are revving up;

sheep grazing in Scotland;

being able to walk again [even with a limp,eleven pieces of metal in your leg and a wobbly gait] after a four part comminuted fracture of my ankle and fibula,surgery, pneumonia and sequelae;

the lilting poetic sound of "la ilahah ila Al-lah" which means there is no GOD but GOD; [I am not Muslim but I like the way they say that.]

the night lights of London that look like a diamond necklace spread out on black backdrop as the plane comes in to land from across the English channel;

the moon when it's full and you are sitting on the beach, and shrimp boats are dragging their nets and it's quiet;

a full English breakfast;

hearing an MD say "I'll help you" when you have a four part comminuted fracture of your ankle and fibula;[the fracture was not wonderful but finding a doctor to help me was!]

watching a Mariachi band in the TV studio in their brightly colored costumes, guitars and lively music;

hearing the customs man say, 'welcome back' to the US after having been abroad;

hearing folks in England call cookies "biscuits" and thinking about what biscuits are in the South;

visiting the same part of Germany that my mother's ancestors emigrated from and wondering if they stood on the same soil?;

seeing the Murray castle in Pitlochry, Scotland and the peacocks on the grounds;

standing on the North Sea shore and looking at the Firth of Fourth bridge I think it is called; and wondering if the story of the Loch Ness monster is real?

the first kiss of a man ,and whose kiss makes you nearly swoon!

And the way a man who loves you, lights up his face when you walk in the room!

the way the sky looks when it has that bright supernatural light that effuses all over the sky, and that makes the blue look more blue and the earth more golden, you know what I mean?

First light of the day, when the eastern rising sun shines on the Rocky Mountains [as I view them from my windows] with that supernatural, heavenly golden light that makes the shiny parts of buildings in the distance twinkle like jewels, and the Rockies look that majestic purple of the sun spilling across them, and the sky lighting up to that Carolina blue color.

And seeing the sun set over the Rocky Mountains when that glowing golden light floods down in streamers from heaven and turns the sky that gorgeous sublime golden with hints of pink in the color and everything looks sort of what I think heaven would look like;