N.B.

I recently learned that N.B. is short for the Latin nota bene.

Literally: note well.

Which, translated into something a modern person might actually say, means: pay attention to this. Take particular notice. Mark this as important. Something here is worth noticing.

And of course I noticed the initials.

N.B.

Nikki Bodie.

I mean, come on.

Nota bene has been used for centuries as a little instruction to the reader: don't skim past this part. Stop here. Pay attention.

Which feels almost offensively perfect for someone who built a section of her website called Margins for the things she couldn't skim past.

The things I noticed while reading. Or researching. Or traveling. Or writing. The thought beside the thought that made me stop and scribble something down before it got away.

And now I discover that the centuries-old abbreviation for pay particular attention to this is my own initials.

I realize this means absolutely nothing.

Which is precisely why it means everything to me.

This is the kind of coincidence my brain collects like evidence. Two unrelated things sitting suspiciously close together, practically begging me to connect them.

N.B.

Nota bene.

Note well.

Nikki Bodie.

Apparently I've been signing the margins all along.

And from now on, if you happen to see N.B. tucked somewhere —

note well.