Written February 2023
To the idiot smiling to themselves while pouring cold brew in a to-go cup ::
I call you this because it is what I would have called myself if I were you. And on many occasions, I was you.
Please continue on, as you are, and do not notice me.
Please keep smiling, softly, yet radiantly about whatever is going through your mind.
Last night’s passionate love-making?
{This may be my own recency bias}
Or this morning’s before your open shift?
Or maybe the human animal in me is thinking for me today.
Maybe you had a lovelysimple interaction with a customer who reminded you :: Sometimes we are so damn good to one another and it makes the world a simpler place to live for a moment.
Or maybe it's that picture of your niece on your phone
The sunset you saw last night
Those words that send chills down your spine
Or what you are looking forward to when you get off
But maybe it is that person you can’t stop thinking about kissing, again, and again. And much more than kissing, again, and again
And if so, I hope you keep on, as you are, smiling about this person, radiantly, for as long as your heart allows you to smile, and then some.
I still remember the day a regular said to me, “Oh you have the glow of a woman in love,” while I was steaming her oat milk, surely thinking about something else steamy.
In three weeks time, I was sniffing lavender lovingly packed in a paper towel by a coworker to calm down my shaking body, ease the tears that felt endless.
So please, keep beaming about this someone who keeps your mind and body up.
Because these are the moments we remember.
Being so dumbly in love that we “should have known better.” To which I call bullshit.
We always know better
And we always love anyway
So love anyway, dear idiot
Love idiotically, you beautiful being
It is the only way we know how
May there be a packet of lavender lovingly handed to you in the future, should you need it. And we will all need this sometime in the future, for one reason or another.
Please, also learn not to consider yourself an idiot.
And Keep On Loving.