I wish I could unite everyone I love, from every time and place in my life, all at once. From those very earliest childhood friends to family I have not seen for years to those I always think I had forgotten until a memory of them swims into my mind---I want to gather them all at some grand party. I will set out a feast of all their collective favorite foods and play the happiest, most beautiful music. The kind that gaily fades into the next song so there are never any abrupt stops. And for days, we will do nothing but make merry. We will all wear the most absurd costumes we can possibly throw together and then dance, even the shyest, most self-conscious of us. We will thrash around and sing what in any other house or yard would offend the neighbors.

Then, what will seem like only an instant later, we will all fall down simultaneously, but we won't hit the floor. The strength of all of us holding hands and the invisible waves bouncing between our hearts will hold us up. So, we will hover. We will float like fairy babies above the wood boards and just gaze at each other stupidly. But it won't be the kind of stupidity we will later regret. It will be the kind of stupidity we will dream about later, the kind we only regret not being able to re-create.

In those few seconds that we float, I will whisper, "Thank you." I will not have to explain. Even in their momentary stupidity, they will understand. They will know that I am thanking them all for making me who I am. But lest I keep them from all their other beloved ones too long, they will disappear very shortly after. And, once again, they will reside in the depths of my wistfulness.