Tonight I visited dear friends and was fed an exquisite vegan chili. It was the kind of food that feeds your soul as well as your body, and the kind of food you remember and want to eat again the next day. Well, I’ve been taken care of on that account as I was sent home with a big bowl filled to the brim. I’ll have it for lunch tomorrow if my daughters don’t snitch it in the meantime. I think I’ll sit by it in the kitchen and growl if anyone approaches too closely.

The chili was washed down with an ample quantity of beer, and when the eating was over we played cards for a hour or so. I lost badly.

The air outside is crisp and cold. It snowed only a day ago, and the sky is crystal clear with thousands of twinkling stars. On the way home I chanced to look up just as a meteor streaked across the velvety blackness, a sparkling blue-white incandescence trailing behind it. I’m sure it was there just to show off to me.

When I got home my daughters greeted me with hugs and an invitation to sit with them to watch a movie. I did, and within a few minutes they both fell asleep, their heads resting on my shoulders. They are so wonderful.

Rob Brezsny is right, the whole world is conspiring to shower me with blessings.