I’ve been away for a while, being at camp, canoeing on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, an Engineering camp. Actually, now, I’m in Hawaii for family vacation, but I have internet!
Anyway, for a long time, I have kept a list of my top five favorites in my head. When first learning about the concept, a friend’s brother began naming important things like ‘oxygen’, ‘shelter’, ‘water’, but that’s not what this list is. This is a list of favorites: things that I muchly prefer over other things. Since I restrict myself to five, it’s been refined over the months I’ve kept it. So, without further ado, and in no particular order…my list.
- Sleep. I adore sleeping. It’s not that I dream, because most often, I don’t. (The ‘D’ is sticking, so sorry about any typos. I’m trying to catch them.) And it’s not that I can lay down and instantly fall asleep, because I can’t. It’s that I crave sleep for most of my waking hours. There’s actually something wrong with my brain, apparently. It goes into REM sleep mode while awake. Thus, I’m always tired. But more than that, I enjoy sleeping. It’s relaxing and it’s ‘me’ time. This goes way back to when I was much younger. If I faked being asleep, I didn’t have to help unload the car after trips, got to sleep longer, and occassionally, overheard conversations between my parents and older brother.
- Food. So, food is a necessity in life. You don’t eat, you die. But when I say food is my favorite, I’m talking about the nicer kinds of food. Seafood is probably one of my favorite foods. I really appreciate a well prepared piece of fish. And, though I’ve never ‘gone hungry’, I’ve gone without good food enough times to realize that food makes life more enjoyable.
- Air Conditioning. It’s hot where I live. Really hot. And though the temperature may not get above 100 degrees very often, the heat index because of humidity regulary makes it feel like 115. A girl from Ecuador once told me that Atlanta was extremely hot compared to her country. So, air conditioning to alleviate the heat is my favorite. But why not central heating? It can get cold in Alabama. Just this past year, we got out of school for a week because of a huge snowstorm. It was freezing. But in the cold, you can always put more clothes on, huddle with people, drink hot chocolate. The cold gets in your bones, but the heat gets in your lungs. It’s oppressive. I prefer air conditioning.
- God. This is why I said ‘no particular order’. When I list my 5 favorites, He always is 4th, but really He’s first. God is pretty awesome. He created all things, and I’ve traveled to Hawaii and seen the beautiful scenery that He created out of love for us. Plus, there’s the added bonus of having all my sins forgiven through Him and being assured of my eternity. Honestly though, trusting in Him was the best thing I ever did and that’s why He’s my favorite.
- Running Water. Okay, so this is a bit of a cop-out. It started out as ‘Current’ meaning on a river. I paddled 59 miles on the Buffalo River and around 56 miles of it was basically stagnant lakes. 1 miles was upriver, and there was plenty of current there, but that’s beside the point. We would paddle 3/4 miles of a lake in the hot sun and come across a bend in the river with maybe 50 yards of ‘current’. It made the trip worth it. But, running water also covers flushing toilets and showers. Sinks too, I suppose. We planned our trip so we could stop most nights at designated campsites which came with trashcans and permanant porta poties. But the bathroom were actually worse than going in the woods. Then, after the last day, we went to legit campground with bathhouses to shower before heading back to Alabama. They ha actual showers! and flushing toilets! Best shower of my life. And so, running water is my favorite.
For a long time, Coke, as in Coka-Cola, was on my list. But since last Thanksgiving, I have had 9 Cokes. I still crave the carbonation, but I’m (mostly) off sodas. Therefore, Coke is off my list.
Do you have ‘favorites’?
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