Left that place early and walked east along Sherbrooke in the sunshine, absorbing a week's worth of vitamins. It had warmed up and then it cooled right back down and so the snow melted into streams and puddles and then stopped suddenly in it's tracks. It was that perfect kind of ice, crystalline and brittle and translucent on the verge of opaque. Every puddle cracked so nicely and I thought about how children are probably happy because they know how to get their satisfaction without thinking too hard about it. And thinking about that I meandered along and tried to open my eyes wider and not let one stranger catch me scowling. We exchanged a knowing smile when you almost slipped and I took big deliberate steps to protect against the same. I listened to music and looked at the colour of bricks on buildings when the sun hits them like this at this time of day. I walked through the park and then got to the place that sells the healthy cat food. I used my French and talked about you, Mooz. I took a different way home and saw things a little bit differently. I looked into your window and it was chock-full of books and when I walked inside it smelled so good. There was a grey and white cat sleeping on a stool, there were books that looked a thousand years old, there was a box of original prints and the words all around were mostly French but there was that one shelf that was full of English. And it was full of what seemed to be carefully selected and lightly read novels. Mostly for three dollars apiece. I looked and found and wanted several of them, but I thought about money and all of the other things I also need to use it for, and so settled on four. But the wild-haired, bearded, bespectacled man at the counter informed me he took cash only. Shucks. Well I will put one back. Is there tax? Maybe I will put two pack. No tax today. Gosh, you are very kind. So leaving and then walking, I caught up to the one other patron who asked me in French if I found anything interesting in there. And I did! And we walked together and talked about books and neighbourhoods and discovered we are neighbours. And we said goodbye and then I came in to your purred greetings and lovingly cleaned up your little messes. I continued to think about this day and how nice that sunlight was and how good it feels to walk around smiling and feeling good and actively opening up my heart and just seeing how that feels.
