There are two kinds of days that are perfect. Probably there are more, but I can think of two different ways to spend a day that approach perfection and make me feel happiest. One is when I'm surrounded by people I care about. I'm not the center of attention on these days, but a comfortable participant. Family birthdays are an example of these perfect days.

The other kind of perfection is a day when I can spend my time doing things that make me feel good about being in the world. Reading (almost halfway thorugh the 700-page mystery), watching TV (I finally saw Miss Congeniality, which has been clogging my TiVo memory for two weeks), listening to music (the roots music show on the local public station), working in the garden (not for long, because the ground was too soggy).

I'm often alone on these kinds of days, and that's okay. The sun almost has to shine, as it did today, but it's possible for me to be happy on a cloudy or rainy day, as long as I know the sun will be out tomorrow or the day after.

Today was one of those days, the second kind. It started with lying in bed late, catching up on the sleep that has eluded me for days and days. The rest of the day didn't make any demands or force me to take up tedious tasks. For once I chose the agenda and didn't get interrupted and side-tracked by the clamor of ringing phones with unfriendly voices on the other end of the line.

I'd have gladly spent the day with people, but since I couldn't do that, I made the most of my solitude, at least from my own point of view. I didn't make the world any better, but I didn't make it any worse, and I managed like Pollyanna to find some gladness.

The only thing wrong with today was its brevity. I slept too much of the morning away, and the darkness came before I could fully enjoy the sunlight. Even that's all right, though, because in a month the days will start getting longer again.

I was in a good mood all day, even though I didn't have anyone to share it with. There are no witnesses, so you'll have to take my word for it. Besides, if I had been in the company of someone else, chances are my lack of sleep would have revealed itself in a snippy comment or a surly turn in my demeanor.

That's been happening some lately. Even today, as well as everything was going, I had one of those moments during my only outing to the post office. As I was leaving the parking lot, I got impatient with the other drivers. I might have called one of them a bad name. (But why in the world would someone wait ten minutes to make a left turn across traffic when they have a line of cars behind them waiting to make a simple right turn? I mean, really!)