Recipe for a Happy Life

image source

For Rick on his birthday. 

Find someone who delights in words, marvels at them, picks them up like precious stones, turning them this way and that to see colors and variations.

Someone who sees possibilities in angles and spaces and movement, for whom patterns are beautiful.

Someone who protects and curates your bottle cap collection, even if you don't have one.

Someone who wears work shoes for work purposes.

Someone who speaks, who gives voice to what needs to live out loud; you won't always understand, but you will be more grateful with each passing day, week, month, and year.

It also helps if he loves — truly loves, with deep devotion — a tree. 

Find someone with the gift of thrift, who will discover perfectly soled sambas, sturdy backpacks, the sweetest little ceramic bowls, more glassware than any kitchen cabinet can hold, and endless treasures you did not know would bring you joy.

Someone -- that special someone -- you can't wait to annoy for the rest of your life.

Someone who is interested in the world, in art and ideas, culture and stories, in how things get made and how beauty is created.  Someone who knows that books, poetry, and music are essential, and introduces you to sounds you've never heard before. 

Someone of faith, who knows that endless mercy has the power to see, understand, and bring us home.

Someone who will be present and steadfast on bumpy roads, in sickening pitches, and through sudden, harrowing turns. You’ll need it. 

Find someone who will heal, perfect and exalt you, and for whom you will do the same.

Stir yourself with this person, day by day simmering and changing with the pressure and intensity of being alive, and together you will lay the table of a happy life.