So the other day I was making cookies… I will pause here for that to sink in… If you have known me for years, you would understand that is not something I would have said regularly – or ever. Until moving to France, I had never made cookies. Well, at home I mean. In school, we had Home-Economics. I believe my kitchen-mate was Ellen Patrick the day we made cookies and she set the potholders on fire. It’s hard to top that. In France, however, I decided that I wasn’t going to say, oh, I never do that… instead, I was going to adopt the attitude of “I haven’t done that yet.” And so now, quite often, my hair smells of sugar and platters are filled with cookies.

So the other day I was making cookies, and singing… yes, I sing when I bake, and not only then… Sometimes a song that I’ve heard before jumps into my soul, and it feels like I’m hearing it for the first time, over and over and over again! On this day, I was Norma from Sunset Blvd., and it was “As if we never said goodbye.” I stirred and crooned with all my heart. The line that really got to me was, “Has there ever been a moment with so much to live for?” And standing in the kitchen, elbow deep in dough, smelling of sugar and vanilla, I tell you… no… there hasn’t … this is the moment… right here… right now. And what a glorious feeling. To love that moment, to love being alive… yes! The cookies are almost gone. But the feeling remains. I want to find that moment, every day, as often as I can. I want to be present in that moment where I think, for something as simple as baking, painting, napping, loving, shopping, singing, eating, praying, “Has there ever been a moment with so much to live for?”

I hope you feel it too. I hope you feel it now. I wish for you that moment! And while you’re waiting for your moment, at least have a cookie!