Collecting

As a small child I collected snails

Fat and slimy

Gentling covering their eyes with my finger tip

Marveling at the instant descend toward home

Over and over again

Touching one then the other

Now understanding that no creatures wants to be poked in the eye

As an older child I collected stamps

Beautifully laid books with acid free paper and plastic to protect valuable squares of sticky paper

I didn't have

An old Danish Cookie tin filled to the brim with bent up stamps from Canada and the UK pushed under my bed

As a teen I collected phone numbers

At the mall, Stonestown and Serramonte with male cousins

Some by blood, others by kinship

In greasey smelling food courts with scraps of paper in pockets

Contests on who can get the most

Being the only girl in the crew I always won, no boy ever said no

These days I collect good intentions and the bounties from practicing being better in this moment

Harmonious vibrations spark opening of channels to other portals where mind and matter are one