I love donuts. There. I’ve admitted it. Not all donuts, of course. I’m partial to certain types and especially anything with cinnamon and glaze, and particularly to cinnamon swirls and twists. I have them about once a year, as a treat. I would have them more often but they’re so bad for me. Even after I’ve finished my one indulgence for the year, I feel like I need a shower. It’s similar to how I feel on the exceedingly rare occasion that I have a Big Mac. Actually, the Big Mac is worse.
The last time I had one of those, about six years ago, I felt like I should shower for a week, inside and out.
Yesterday, I went to the mailbox and asked Kevin if he needed anything while I was out. He didn’t hesitate. A donut. He didn’t get one. Later, I was on Facebook and Roy had posted a picture of a donut. Evidently, they had splurged and I was jealous.
They had also indulged in a very heavy conversation about life. The kind of conversation we all often engage in. About money, about what we’re doing with our lives, where we’re going, what we can still accomplish with the time we have left. Like I said, heavy. When we were younger, the heavy conversations were different. What kind of career would we have, would we get married, would it last? Would we have children, did we want to? How soon could we change the world.
She told me a bit about what they had discussed, details of which I won’t share here. I paused and then said “hence the donut.”

This, I’ve decided, is a new rallying cry. When things aren’t going my way, when I’m down, or tired. When I’m mad at the world and can find nothing worth celebrating, I’ll just think “hence the donut.” Because a donut, like all comfort food, brings just that, comfort, an escape from the irritants of the day. Donuts, those marvelously nasty pieces of fried dough, can change the trajectory of any day simply by being. It can bring joy and resilience. It makes you feel better.
“Hence the donut” becomes a metaphor for good things are just around the corner; they’re coming. We just have to take a bite and let the sweetness of change and of life, run through us. I try to do it every day. I’m not always successful, but I do err on the side of positivity, trying to find the good and the reason for any situation no matter how dire, no matter how frustrating.
I was stuck in the airport the other night for hours, so long in fact that by the time our flight actually boarded for departure, the terminal was nearly empty save for my fellow journeymen and women. I was frustrated, and then irritated. I just wanted to go home. We got on the plane, finally and proceeded to sit at the gate for another 10 minutes or so, long after everyone had sat down and buckled in. My frustration and irritation grew. It had been a long day; I was tired. I had bought a sweatshirt and slippers in the terminal and changed so I was a bit more comfortable. Still.
When Kevin picked me up and Cooper was in the car with him, I smiled, frustration and irritation gone instantly. It was the donut. Something good appearing out of the bad, something to make me feel better. My donut was in the guise of my husband and my dog. What’s yours?