1. Walks – especially with my dogs. They sniff everything, and track things they’ll never even see, let alone catch, and I get to experience the various seasonal changes in our neighborhood.
2. Water – whether it’s my shower, my lovely tub with the window, my pool, or rain, I think best when I’m in or around water. The sound of the surf is my touchstone, and it’s in my head and my heart even when I’m far from the actual ocean.
3. Weaving – I’m not sure if I like The Lady of Shallot because she weaves, or if I like weaving because of the poem, but the whole notion of weaving appeals to me. I’ve been following this blog about a New Hampshire farm just to read about their sheep and the wool they get from them.
4. Web – I’m not a fan of spiders, but I think that orb webs are among the loveliest sites Nature has produced. As well, I’m a fan of that other sort of web, the one preceded by “world wide.”
5. Weeds – as kids we all think dandelions are pretty until we’re conditioned to think of them as weeds, lawn disruptors, the enemy. The thing is, I like weeds. Some of them are just as pretty as “real” flowers.
6. Wells, Rebecca – she seriously needs to write another book, because Little Altars Everywhere was short stories, and not satisfying, and Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood just wasn’t enough. And I know there was also YaYas in Bloom, but, still. More please.
7. Whales – John Denver sang, “Have you gazed out on the ocean, seen the breaching of a whale? Have you watched the dolphins frolic in the foam.” D. H. Lawrence wrote:
   

   They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains

   the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.

   All the whales in the wider deeps, hot are they, as they urge

   on and on, and dive beneath the icebergs.

   The right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads, the killers

   there they blow, there they blow, hot wild white breath out of

   the sea!

   And they rock, and they rock, through the sensual ageless ages

   on the depths of the seven seas,

   and through the salt they reel with drunk delight

   and in the tropics tremble they with love

   and roll with massive, strong desire, like gods.

   Then the great bull lies up against his bride

   in the blue deep bed of the sea,

   as mountain pressing on mountain, in the zest of life:

   and out of the inward roaring of the inner red ocean of whale-blood

   the long tip reaches strong, intense, like the maelstrom-tip, and

   comes to rest

   in the clasp and the soft, wild clutch of a she-whale’s

   fathomless body.

   And over the bridge of the whale’s strong phallus, linking the

   wonder of whales

   the burning archangels under the sea keep passing, back and

   forth,

   keep passing, archangels of bliss

   from him to her, from her to him, great Cherubim

   that wait on whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the

   sea

   great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies.

   And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-

   tender young

   and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters of

   the beginning and the end.

   And bull-whales gather their women and whale-calves in a ring

   when danger threatens, on the surface of the ceaseless flood

   and range themselves like great fierce Seraphim facing the threat

   encircling their huddled monsters of love.

   And all this happens in the sea, in the salt

   where God is also love, but without words:

   and Aphrodite is the wife of whales

   most happy, happy she!

   and Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin

   she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea

   she is the female tunny-fish, round and happy among the males

   and dense with happy blood, dark rainbow bliss in the sea.
   –Whales Weep Not

   .

   Beyond that, there need be no explanation – they’re amazing wonderful animals.

8. Whispers – sometimes a whisper is better heard than the loudest scream. Whispers are intimate, soft, private. They imply things that are secret and special.
9. Why – I’m told that I used to ask this incessantly. Of course, I was five at the time. Now though, I still like to know WHY before I do anything.
10. Windows – I like looking in as much as looking out – each has its own perspective and its own beauty.
11. Wit – in humor, I prefer irony, sarcasm, and other examples of dry wit, over slapstick and sophomoric jokes. Always have. Always will.
12. Writing – I don’t just sling words because it pays the bill. I do it because on some level, I have to. I am made of ink and paper and words and music. And coffee, but that’s a different letter.
13. Wonder – as a noun, it’s almost synonymous with magic and as a verb it is musing, questioning, exploration. I like it in both aspects.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!