My favorite indulgence when I have a night to myself is red wine (and if my husband’s best friend has been around, maybe a cigarette too. Don’t tell anyone.) I love everything about red wine – the rich sounds of the very words, the deep color in the globed glass, the way the taste lingers. I used to drink wine more often, and then my kids came along. It makes me enjoy these quiet glasses that much more. Tonight my wine is accompanied by poetry, and maybe later, if I don’t fall asleep, a movie, probably something slow and British that my husband won’t watch with me. But right now, I’m enjoying this:

To Tanya on My Sixtieth Birthday

What wonder have you done to me?

In binding love you set me free.

These sixty years the wonders prove:

I bring you aged a young man’s love.

Wendell Berry