“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” ~Meister Eckhart
1. Morning walks. They were shorter but we got to take them this week, and it made me so happy. There was only one morning we only went around the block, but that was because it was snowing (yay!) and it was the kind that spring brings, heavy and wet.
2. Ringo’s “care team.” In particular, Dr. Gaffney at Mulnix Animal Clinic, Dr. Foster at Animal Elevation, and Dr. Rychel and Teri at Red Sage Integrative Veterinary Partners. The past couple of weeks have been rough and having them available, so smart and caring, has been so good. Ringo has arthritis, this is nothing new, but there is a spot on his back that has been particularly uncomfortable and a bit of a mystery the past few weeks, but we are hoping we’ve got it properly located, identified, figured out, and our plan will bring us all some relief. Let’s not talk about how much money has been spent — too bad “working breed” doesn’t mean they have a job and get paid for it.
3. Two of my favorite boys share a birthday. They turned five this week. Happy Birthday!!!!!
Warren is a BIG Sonic fanHow is he five already?!I love the way he looks at her
4. Practice. Thursday morning yoga and Friday morning wild-ish writing along with the tender big hearted humans who practice with me kept me alive this week.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Like I said, the past few weeks have been tough, but no matter how hard things get, there’s nowhere I’d rather be, no one (two) I’d rather be there with. No matter what happens, we’ll just keep trying, keep taking care of each other the best we can.
Snow day activitySnow day enrichment
Dreaming
Bonus joy: Olly stress gummies, strawberries and raspberries, cinnamon swirl bread from The Bread Chic, good TV, listening to podcasts, comedy and comedians, getting the laundry done, poetry and poets, lowering the bar, eating whatever sounds good regardless of its nutritional value because sometimes you just need to eat something, crying, a hot cup of coffee and warm mug of tea, massage, getting in the pool and the sauna (they are going to be closed for about two weeks for repairs, *sob*), libraries and librarians, a warm shower, clean sheets, down blankets and pillows, staying in bed in the morning even though you are awake because it’s just so cozy, giving away things that are precious to people who are the same, hugs, birds, other people’s pets, Eric coming back to tell me Ringo had moved to that spot on Sam’s couch where the sun hits this time of the morning and the deep sigh he did when he laid down, this poem Michelle shared yesterday and in particular this line: “a wild place, toothed and flowering,” reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep, and these two pictures, one of my aunt Monica at her husband Bruce’s celebration of life service holding baby Hallie for the first time and another of the way the light hits the glass in my front door some mornings and reflects onto the wall.
P. S. Kind and gentle reader, I feel this week in particular that I want to honor how hard, how much effort it can take sometimes to be grateful. We can be so desperate to grasp at some sort of comfort, we say dumb things like “it could be worse” to try and cheer ourselves up. The world is heavy and even our domesticity, as the poet above says, can be “unnavigable, and not for the tenderhearted.” In these moments, all I can do is remind myself what Jeff Foster said, “Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude. Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar,” and keep making this list every week, keep saying “thank you.” If you are finding it hard to be grateful, to keep going, I see you, and I’m right there with you. Stay tender. Keep your heart open. Don’t give up. And thank you, thank you for still being here. ❤
2. A Year of Kō on The Dewdrop. “We invite haiku poets to incorporate the kō phrases for the micro-season as prompts or inspirations into their haiku submissions. Please refer to our kō calendar, (below) which can serve as a guide for haiku poets to read, ruminate, reflect, and then write their own response in sync with the appropriate kō micro-season and publishing time frames.”
3. The Path, “a daily ritual on foot” by Danusha Laméris.
7. You Can’t Give 100% to Everything All the Time. “On choosing what matters most, putting good things on the back burner, and why it’s okay to be sad about it” by Elizabeth Kleinfeld.
8. An Existential Guide to: Growing Old. “Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read” on The Shadowed Archive.
11. Kristin Neff & Caverly Morgan: Self-Compassion as a Lifeboat. (podcast) “Can the simple act of being kind to yourself actually be a doorway to awakening? In this special episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon brings together two remarkable teachers whose friendship has sparked a revolutionary approach to inner transformation. Kristin Neff—the researcher who first measured self-compassion and author of Fierce Self-Compassion—joins Caverly Morgan, a meditation teacher and former Zen monk, to explore how self-compassion practices can become what they call ‘a lifeboat’ to our deepest nature. Together, they reveal why self-compassion isn’t just a psychological tool for feeling better—it’s a direct path to recognizing who we really are beyond our limited sense of self.”
21. Love Stories on 1440. “Below are more than 100 love stories submitted by our over 4.7M readers. Whenever you need a little lift, scroll through and let your fellow readers warm your heart, coax a chuckle, give you a lesson to ponder, and maybe even bring a tear to your eye.”
25. LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching. (video) “Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers—spending a year living in a used minivan, traveling the country to compete in a ‘Big Year’.”
28. ‘Truly accessible to everyone’: how to start yoga. “Some think yoga isn’t for them – but there’s ‘something for everybody’. Experts share what to know about the mindful practice that can improve strength and sleep.”
31. What If Your Sanctuary Gets Destroyed? “When our place changes, even overnight, our stories stop making sense—until we redraw the world around us” by Janisse Ray on Trackless Wild.
32. The Sunday Letter Project. “The Sunday Letter Project is a weekly invitation to balance. To recalibrate, reconnect, and return home. We believe that letter-writing is the perfect antidote to this generation’s dependence on technology – it allows you to slip back into a time where the world felt less frantic and more spacious. By signing up for the project, you will be invited to take a pledge: a pledge to take a pocket of time each Sunday and dedicate it to yourself and your loved ones. To write, to ponder, to savour. To regenerate a practice that has connected humans for generations and is starting to be lost. We believe letter writing is a unique way that we can find our way home as humans, and we invite you to join us.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 