In Paris and Italy, the summer after graduating from college.

When I lived with my grandmother in Trinidad, before I came to England to live with my mother in Newcastle at the age of seven.

Anywhere, during the 2 to 24 hours after a successful joke.

Right now – I’ve 35 years of experience to understand how to make the most of every day.

My distractibility, diminishing memory, and capacity for sustained concentration. My English master once said I had the brain of a butterfly. I feel that 40 years later, I’ve evolved into Dory from Finding Nemo.

At the right time, and like my father—utterly without fear or pain, at home, with all whom I love. It was his last lesson as a parent to me.

My mother. She’s 85 and rather than diminishing with age, she keeps surprising and growing more marvelous. She finds fun when most are jaded, wonder when most are cynical, and is curious when most are bored. She gave me life and continues to show me how to live it daily. And I know that everyone who meets her thinks the same.

The loss of anything, be it a loved one or a faculty—my sight, hearing, or mind.

In my bed, a hot-water bottle on my tummy, the windows are open, reading a book that I’m already into, chocolate at hand, all with the knowledge that everyone I love and know is happy.