on ordinary blessings

(nopenope:langer)

“we toasted gerry and quintana at st. john the divine and a few hours later, in their absence, at a chinese restaurant on west sixty-fifth street with my brother and his family, we toasted gerry and quintana again. we wished them happiness, we wished them health, we wished them love and luck and beautiful children. on that wedding day, July 26, 2003, we could see no reason to think that such ordinary blessings would not come their way. do notice: we still counted happiness and health and love and luck and beautiful children as ‘ordinary blessings.’”—joan didion, blue nights

2011: the year i longed for ordinary things, which included wanting to read joan didion, whose conservatism i can’t always stomach.