Last night my writing student came over for dessert, a haircut, and a movie.

I had a pretty wretched week and am having a difficult time facing what I cannot understand. She called right in the middle an arduous meeting and asked if I had plans for the evening because she had been working like crazy and thought I might want to take a break with her. I did. We did.

Her call was an act of God's grace to me.

The dessert was a surprise. In addition to her wonderful presence, K had brought all the makings of homemade strawberry shortcake...something I had never consumed before. She brought it as a bribe to cut her hair, but I never need a bribe to help another person out. I feel so very useless most of the time these days that someone asking me for help is a gift to me.

Of course, it is difficult to actually shorten her luxurious, long curls, but I steel my resolve and get the job done. Usually, I take just one curl's length to trim off any split ends. Wet, her hair was almost down to the small of her back. Dry, it hangs beautifully curled to the middle of her back.

While much of our time together is usually spent writing, because the days have been full of hard work for us both, we opted to watch a movie instead: Juno. I really enjoyed it. Juno's pithy humor was thought provoking at times and at others just plain funny.

I thought this evening was a perfect...good food, good company, and peaceful rest.