31 Perfect Things

One of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta, recently posted his own version of a holiday gift guide:

"We don’t need to buy things to make our lives beautiful or joyous. We don’t need more glamorous items in our lives to find happiness and contentment. We can find these wonderful qualities in what’s already in front of us."

Leo has inspired my own perfect gift guide. Gifts are everywhere.

1. Peaches.
2. Baby neck scent.
3. This poem by Rumi. 
4. The sound of the ocean.
5. This lovely Elvis Costello song about dementia.
6. Dorothy Parker's short story The Phone Call.
7. This scene from Laverne and Shirley.
8. French roast coffee.
9. My son's sleeping face.
10. This version of David Bowie's Loving the Alien.
11. Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.
12. Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
13. The smell of redwood trees.
14. Kindness.
15. Lupita Nyong'o. 
16. This pre-Downton film.
17. Lemons.
18. The Austin Powers three point turn. Kills me every time.
19. Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes by Raymond Carver
20. Sunrise.
21. Nat King Cole's voice.
22. Madame Bovary.
23. Nina Simone's version of Wild is the Wind.
24. My husband, playing the guitar on Sunday afternoon.
25. Will Ferrell, you guys. WILL FERRELL.
26. Dog noses.
27. This Fiona Apple song.
28. The Age of Innocence. 
29. Mexican wedding cookies.
30. The Amalfi Coast.
31. You.