Joy Jar Updates

If I had yet bought a joy jar or started writing my thoughts out on scraps of paper, yesterday's would likely have read, "I received a wonderful package from my friend, Sarah.  Inside I found so many kinds of hand-made marmalades and preserves and quince paste and fruitcake and a pair of lovely earrings that, since I've lost my small jewelry box filled with my sentimental pieces somewhere in the move, were all the more dear."  Today's might read, "I finally wrote the first paragraph of this chapter that I had wanted to write all along, after such a hard-fought struggle with the blank page-- or worse, the page cluttered with fragments that never quite said what I felt and wanted to say."  The past two days have been a long, soul-wearying struggle to write, to feel, to speak-- but with the help of a winter care package and a couple of timely tunes from my Sondheim Pandora station (Stritch's version of "The Ladies Who Lunch" followed by the 2002 Broadway Cast Recording of "No One is Alone"), I feel like I've finally pulled through.  There will likely be rough days ahead, but I finally feel like I can weather this storm.