Thank you life

• lying in bed, listening to the rain, knowing that you don't have to go anywhere
• fairy lights
• paper lanterns
• writing with a not-too-sharp not-too-blunt pencil
• Saturday mornings
• 100% distraction
• cinnamon-glazed pecans at a cold Christmas market
• sequins
• the word 'sequin'
• the smell of snow
• the clippy nature of paperclips
• being loved
• loving
• double-chocolate cheesecake and jaggery crème brûlée with a cinnamon-rimmed glass of chai
• storms that clear the air
• finally making that phonecall
• unexpected hope
• marshmallows
• still evenings
• new friends
• old friends
• flickery flames
• geckos hiding behind the chopping board
• the relief of a safely-landed plane
• the first time you're understood speaking a new language
• really hearing someone
• really being listened to
• the pen that flatters your writing
• quenching the thirst with a long slurp of iced water
• journeys
• remembering how remarkable your life is
• long bubble baths on sunbeamy mornings
• newspaper clippings lovingly collected by someone who thinks of you
• blue glass
• a bowl of not-too-spicy not-too-mild dhal
• cut-glass doorknobs in a rainbow of colours
• paper dosai in the shape of party hats
• vegetarian thali with countless bowls of mystery yummyness
• seeing shapes in the stars and creatures in the clouds
• that end-of-term feeling
• Indian sweets that look like jewels and taste like heaven
• Dad's bar
• old photographs
• family jokes
• sunrise over Swansea
• finding time
• having space
• knowing why
• accepting that you don't know why
• early morning at Bracelet Bay
• being well
• food after fasting
• glitter hair clips
• silly sunglasses
• clay pots of curd with jugs of kitul treacle
• cardamom milkshake
• tropical evenings
• breathtaking storms
• sitting, silent and still, on the veranda watching the bats make their evening pilgrimage south
• wicker laundry baskets with lids like hats
• truly comfy clothes
• battered old flip flops that are too well-loved to part with
• swishy skirts that flatter the calves
• the simplicity of postcards
• creatures that you almost can't believe exist, like seahorses, giraffes, starfish and many kinds of reptile
• cocoa-buttering yourself until you smell and feel edible
• light bulbs
• little packs of tissues, lovingly supplied by Ma
• canvas bags with cherries on
• little cardis
• baggy linen trousers
• waking with sunrise
• listening to the morning leaf sweeping
• doing everything that you can
• being patient
• family, and the unlistable love and wonder that they bring
• realising that this, too, shall pass
• seaside train journeys
• semi-outdoor ice-fresh showers on early mornings in the tropics
• having options
• seeing familiar things from illuminating new angles
• lip-puckering lime juice and soda with tinkling ice cubes and a silver jug of sugar syrup
• watching ants at work
• ticking things off a list
• rainbow-coloured fabric in a courtyard filled with palm trees and sunshine
• making peace with oneself
• remembering that there's always more
• first night's sleep in a new home, exhausted from all that packing
• Milo
• music in the morning
• simultaneous dancing and ready-getting
• cocktails at sunset
• maraschino cherries on umbrellas or sparkly creatures
• wooden combs
• unbelievably dirty Colombo feet with soles of ingrained dirt
• books that you think about between reads and cry to reach the end of
• blank slates of days just waiting to be filled
• allowing someone lovely to step inside your thoughts, your frowns, your arms, your world
• painfully spicy papaya salad
• rum that tastes like bubble gum
• stretching, starfish-like, across a whole double bed just for you
• sitting down to fill a diary with all the happenings of recent days
• admitting you were wrong
• making things right
• daring to say, "I'm sorry"
• having "sorry" accepted with good grace
• playing the now-I-hear-you now-I-don't game with constant sounds like fans and tick-tock clocks
• dust motes dancing in sunbeams
• walls of glass blocks like ice cubes
• recognising a bad decision and U-turning just in time
• learning something new
• putting new knowledge to use
• family film night, complete with nibbles and people you love
• morning raindrops, still and silent on the windowpane
• baking with Ma
• whoopie pies with sparkle sugar
• the absence of pain
• donning massive baggy travel trousers and remembering days on retreat
• accidentally grilling tomato soup cake... and feeding it to the birds
• hedgehogs trundling roundly in the darkness
• househunting success
• waving to the world from the window of a train
• getting lost when there's time to do so
• not missing the bus home
• tea-towel chickens
• being bee keeper for a day
• honey on oatcakes care of bees of your acquaintance
• neighbours with lawn mowers on sunny afternoons
• Britain breathing out for the bank holiday weekend
• being missed
• digging your treasures from paper-spaghetti filled boxes, safely shipped from a faraway land
• preparations for the next adventure
• knee-high candy-striped socks on nippy days
• ladybirds
• the first sleep in a freshly-changed bed