If rain must fall…

…look between the raindrops.

The storm, Ophelia, brought stormy, raw days to South Jersey this week. I loved every minute of it. On gray days, colors are more vivid, and if you know how to look for it, you’ll find coziness between the raindrops.

My new ethos: Always strive to be “cozy and rich.” By that, I mean wealthy inside. Cozy and rich is how I feel when I’m writing and the words are flowing like condensed milk out of a can. Cozy and rich is spending an hour in a coffee shop, inhaling the rounded aromas of coffee and spices. Cozy and rich is baking a pie. Cozy and rich is cooking up Filipino food when the winds gust and the skies cry. (Absolutely, yes to Filipino food on rainy days or snowy days.)

Thank you to The Stephen Dunn Reading Series at Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, for Wednesday’s reading by Jane Wong, author, artist, and poet, who shared from her book, “Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City.” Being a Jersey girl myself and having been to Atlantic City countless times, and being Asian with my own family’s immigrant story, Wong’s story had me feeling again the sometimes aching bewilderment and loneliness I experienced when my parents, brother, and I were new immigrants in the U.S. in the ‘70s.

In my next post, I’ll tell about my personal mission to bake 1,000 pies, plus share a tip for turning out the juiciest apple pie.

Also coming up: I’ll share about The Farmhouse Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.