Five Senses Friday, Day 6

Lord willing, my next entry will not be a list, but I enjoy Five Senses Fridays, and it's my blog so, well, there. Sorry to be snooty. However, is anyone else as equally excited that Mary Karr converted from agnosticism to Catholicism? She converted in 1996 so apparently it's not big news to many, but I am thrilled. I read The Liars' Club and Cherry and both were great, but The Liars' Club confirmed my theory that poets write the best memoirs. Needless to say, I quickly ordered Karr's new book of poetry, Sinners Welcome. I read Disgraceland this morning; a poem about Karr's first taking Communion at age 40. For lack of a better word, Wow.

Sight:
1. Reading Crunchy Cons. It is changing my life.
2. Happy to discover Bayou City Farmers' Market and Central City Co-Op!
3. Magnolia trees by the Menil art museum.
4. Word snacks inside the Menil such as "Metaphysical Interior With Biscuits" (by Giorgio de Chirico) and "The Alphabet of Revelations" (by Rene Magritte).
5. St. Catherine of Alexandria stained glass, my regular seating placement at Church.

Smell:
1. Benzoin incense at Church.
2. Citrus scent of Veggie Wash.
3. Slicing organic cucumber.
4. Method grapefruit + pear soy candle.
5. Avalon Organics ylang ylang shower gel.

Taste:
1. Whole Foods' rosemary sourdough bread.
2. Raw almonds.
3. Homemade extra virgin olive oil & lemon juice salad dressing.
4. Local, raw honey! Extremely good for you, and very inexpensive in Whole Foods' bulk section.
5. Organic blackberries mixed into stevia-sweetened plain Kefir.

Hear:
1. A pesky fly buzzing between the window and mini-blinds.
2. A kind soul singing "How Great Thou Art" beautifully off-key at the nursing home.
3. The Waterboys in my friend Amy's van as we drove to the Menil with her 3 kids.
4. Johnny's exhortation as I lamented the loss of writing time (and not only blogging) this week. Basically, I will always feel a tension between writing and other callings in life which I enjoy: wife, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, Church-serving, friend-helping, reading, exercising, etc. The tension, the constant desire to sit down and (learn to) write, is my fuel to make this writing life work. Johnny should know; he's been making his self-employed drummer life work for 20 years now.
5. Our upstairs neighbor's dog (Dinah) barking.

Touch:
1. Martha's soft, aged hand at the nursing home.
2. Washing strawberries.
3. Trying on hats at SuperTarget* with 4-year-old Izzy (Amy's daughter). I have a huge head. Izzy kept asking, "Where are all the really big hats for your head?"
4. Johnny rubbing my feet.
5. Izzy's little hand while walking around the Menil.

*Even SuperTarget carries organic items! I purchased Annie's Naturals organic yellow mustard and Numi Bushmen's Brew honeybush tea. For every regular item, there were 3-5 organic alternatives. Who knew?