What is life? It’s looking at the sharks of sky gleaming between the tree leaves… We get so caught up in trying to stay afloat that we forget what using, making actual use of our senses is like. What’s it like to see the color blue, or smell the autumn on the leaves. The way sounds carry farther in the winter than in the spring or summer. Light comes at an angle and even the ground feels harder, before the snowfall. I head a seagull outside… Everyone forgets things like this. But I don’t. I want Anatolij to remember this always…
We bought scented wax cubes from Wal-Mart. The scent of berry cheesecake. Now all we need is a small dish to melt them in, floating in a bowl of hot water, or an electric wax warmer (I don’t want to buy more appliances. I’m thinking we get a tiny dish to float in the ceramic owl candle holder that Anatolij bought for me. Maybe even a small tea cup. I wonder if the cheap melamine mock-porcelain tea cups we have will do… I’m not using it to eat, so it should be fine, right?).
We did end up buying an electric wax warmer. I chose it, of course.
—Anatolij