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What I Want In Life

It's nearly 6am on a Monday morning.  A garbage truck sent to remind me of my insomnia parked outside. Rattled bottles, the beeping from it's reverse, warning of danger and waking me from my slumber.  It's Monday morning, I should be getting up for something.  Something of importance or sustenance.  I lay on a sofa bed in the living room.  My father's home is quiet.  Birds chirp outside, but they aren't like home. They don't taunt me.  I have nowhere to go, but wish I did.  Nowhere to go?  Seems like a metaphor more than a situation.

A tall glass of water.  Leftover avocados and tomato salad sit by my side.  This is my day.  If I do nothing else today, it will be nearly as much as today.  I think about those who live in luxury.  What do they do all day?  The chosen few, born into wealth, or those that acquired it at a young enough age to enjoy it.  MY grandmother, nearing 100, asked of me, "do you want to get old?'  "No," I replied, "not even close."  I would take ten or fifteen more years, if there wasn't any stress.  Wasn't any worry.  I sit on my father's porch.  Nobody is up, but these sanitation workers.  Slaving away, with the hopes that one day, this will be there life. I know this is temporary.  I know it can't last forever, but wish that it could.

I sit on the porch, as I did yesterday.  Nothing to do, but be with my thoughts.  I play a game, chat with a friend. Keep company with my father or grandmother.  We choose here or the back deck.  The back deck to gaze at a sunset, while sipping hot coffee and eating a berry pie.  I like the porch.  It faces the world and I can nod at those who pass by.  We share that brief moment, where they, walking a dog or jogging, acknowledge the calm.  It's soothing.  It won't last.

It's cool right now.  As cool as it's been in days.  A chill goes down my spine, but it's refreshing.  The beads of sweat that were there two days ago were not as pleasant.  I think about what I want in life.  It's not a big house or a fancy car.  It's not a wife and 2.2 kids. I look across the street.  The yellow house with the picket fence.  A teacher, her husband and son.  The perfect family I guess. The trash cans in front of the house, the SUV in the driveway...it's the American Dream.  It's not mine anymore.  But do I even have one?

My grandmother asked me what I would do if I could do anything.  I thought of my friends that are in need and even those who aren't.  I think about the kids that bring me happiness. I think of those who have been there for me and those who I've been there for them.  I think about all there is in life.  All we strive for and none of it matters.  So what is it?  What do I want if wanting wasn't an option?  Sadly it's just so simple and so uneventful. It's almost embarrassing. I see my friends cars and houses. Their vacation pictures and their symbols of status.  I want for none of it.  Honestly.

I want to be woken by the birds.  I want to make breakfast and sit and watch as school children prance to school.  I want the coffee to warm me from within and the sun to burn of the morning dew.  I want the day not to matter.  Golf, lunch with a friend, or a movie.  I want to sit and blog, or maybe even write.  I want to play games and laugh at others and maybe give them a chuckle.  I want to sit with a friend, or even better, a lover and sip wine and eat cheeses, anticipating the suns departure.  I want to cook for those who I care about and sit around a table for hours, laughing, thinking, debating, whatever the course may be.  I want to end the day as I started. Sipping coffee that warms me from within.  I want to bid those friends adieu, but have that one special person stay.  I want to turn of the lights and know that tomorrow will be the same.  No pressure, no fear and more than anything, I want to know, I don't have to do it alone.

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