Cherished Blogfest

Today I'm joining the Cherished Blogfest hosted by Paul Ruddock, Peter Nena, Sharukh Bamboat, Tom Benson, Damyanti Gosh, and Dan Antion. The directive is to blog about a single cherished object in 500 words or less. But how do I choose just one? This house is chockfull of cherishables.

There's pretty things:

Kitty things:

A slot machine from my dad over a hundred years old (the machine, not my dad):

A crèche from Peru (or was it Chili?) from a cherished student:

There's books to read. How could I pick my most cherished of those? There's soft things like the contoured pillow that keeps my neck from cramping and the king-sized blue fleece blanket I sleep in every night (Linus has nothing on me!) There are useful things like the bike that I ride along the shores on Lake Ontario, and, wow, can't forget my kids, although they can stretch my limits of cherishability. And there are two of them, which means, like Lays chips, I can't possibly pick just one. 

So here's the thing, the most cherished thing. The object that lets me marvel at the blue in the peacock's tail, pet the softest part of the cat until it purrs, hope for the jackpot when I insert a nickel and pull the lever, celebrate Christmas and remember friends from the past and hope they're well, mourn the loss of Ruth May in The Poisonwood Bible, dream each night in crazy comfort, fly down a hill by the lake, and hug my children tight is . . . 

my mind. Frequently lost, sometimes less than sane, but I do cherish it.

Special thanks to Sedona, for taking all these pictures for me last moment. I also cherish her technical skills.