A-whoo-hoo

• 4:30 am prayer, meditation, and a short run.

• Reflecting a lot lately on what's essential for a life of fulfillment for me.

• Happy birthday, old man. I love you. I miss you, my dearest root-working Newport, long-smoking blues man. At the altar this morning, I said a short prayer (I know how you despise small talk, Grandad) and then drove, the windows opened to the city, listening to Howlin Wolf. "A-whoo-hoo" I sang through tears and smiles. "Whoa-oh, fare-you-well."

• I found sneakers that don't hurt my feet. I look like a guy who doesn't run but sells better-looking running shoes to people who do.

• Oatmeal, chocolate, mint energy bars.

• I feel like I'm always reaching: I'm reaching for a hand, a heart, a body, a mind. It's exhausting. I think about this feeling or, moreover, this realization. When I'm muted about this to keep the peace, what true peace can exist to be kept?

• Essence Fest has the city sated with black women's celebrations.

• I Be's Troubled by Muddy Waters was recorded in Mississippi in 1941 on the plantation of William Stovall, a Confederate Civil War colonel. An enthusiastic boy, James Helm, would wander around the same grounds with a guitar across his chest. Years later, James would sit at a piano with his grandson and help him write his first blues song. "It's a shuffle," he told me. "Make 'dem hands glide 'cross the piano keys. That sad and happy journey is what the blues is all about."

• Zoe appears in the doorway with a hopeful, eager air. “Mommy told me to ask you.” I say yes. The kids are spending the night with their favorite aunt.

• A quiet house, soft scents, and a weighted blanket that feels like love.

• Everyone is problematic to a cause.

• Everyone is a hero to a cause.

• Water.

With all my heart…Té