I am glad that clouds are rounded at the corners. On a 6am run today, the world said good morning with clouds decked out in cotton candy trim. I needed rounded corners this morning.
It's time to get off my butt again. I can feel it. I wish I was back in housekeeping, but I'm not, and I need to do something different with myself before I go crazy. A good long hike. A midnight skinny dip. One of those small things with enough bite to kick you back into being thankful that you get to live here with the tree frogs and katydids.
I seem to be thinking a lot lately about what I'm going to do in the store next year. Which means I've been thinking a lot lately about being here another year, without really giving credit or weight to what that means. Maho again? Another year? Do I mean that? In an effort to not get too comfortable, I am going to compose a list of all I still want to do in life. All the things I can't do if I stay on this easy island for too much longer. Because I am not done yet. My curiosity about every place and every person I don't understand has not been squashed. This is a beautiful life, truly. Fairly simple. Plump with cushions and padding...and rounded corners. Nothing too sharp or harsh. No reality to face. But when does a place stop being virtuously comfortable and start turning into an enabler of sorts? I need to be scared again. Bumped and scraped and torn down by a new situation that I have to figure out on my own. I want another fresh, frightening start. Another new thing.
So. A list. This is what I want. This is why I'm not done.

-The thrill of being really, really lost
-The sky in Montana
-Christmas in New York City
-A tiny coffee shop full of overstuffed couches and overexpressed hipster poets
-Mud football
-A big city life, if only for a few months
-A sweet small-town life, if only for a few weeks
-Museums and galleries and theaters
-Fresh oysters
-Learning a language through immersion
-Toy stores
-The Tattered Cover
-Music festivals where you sweat all day and sleep in the cool grass
-Red mittens
-Farmers' Markets
-The way Christmas lights look under a new, thick layer of snow
-Every ocean and every sea
-A little fishing village
-A beautiful running route (I have this now, but I want to see a new one)

Oh, there's more. There is much more. I envy people who are happy enough here to want to stay indefinitely. They are done exploring. They wanted their perfect place and they found it in the still sea and the slight breeze. They want nothing more than this coconut life and don't feel the need to look any further.

Alas, the more you see of the world, the less you feel you've seen.

By the way, I am madly and wholly in love with Owl City right now. I wish their songs never ended and they could be streamed directly into my ears all day and all night. It still wouldn't be enough.