1. Morning walks. We had a few really cold mornings this week. One included a slight dusting of snow and another didn’t happen until 11 am because it was so cold.
2. Fort Collins Food Co-op opened in its new location. Beavers Market, only half a mile from my house, was operated by the Beavers family from 1976 until 2021. On their final day open, the family posted a statement on Facebook, a letter to their customers, that said, in part, “We have reached a point in our lives where it is time to say goodbye to the long hours and responsibility of owning and operating the store and say hello to our next chapter of life. Please know that this is one of the most difficult things we have ever done. The store, our employees and our customers have meant everything to us, and it is extremely bittersweet to say goodbye. We have poured our hearts and soul into Beavers Market and words will never express how much it means to us and to our family. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being part of our journey.”
I can’t overstate how beloved this little market was in our community, a place where the bigger chain stores could have easily made it impossible for them to survive. It had an extra special place in my heart because as soon as I walked inside, I traveled back in time to the small neighborhood family owned market in my little town where I grew up, Ditter’s Market in Sublimity, Oregon, which opened in 1890 as a drug store and tobacco shop but branched out into general merchandise a few years later. I never got over my amazement at how similar the two stores were, and now, neither one of them is still there.
New owners who had a tiny chain of other stores across the U.S., four total including Beaver’s, promised to keep things the same, but that didn’t happen and the new market never really thrived and finally closed down just four years later. It was sad, but it had never really replaced Beavers, so maybe it was finally the end of an era, time to let go of that simpler, sweeter time.
Which is why we were so surprised and pleased when it was announced that the local food co-op, itself serving Fort Collins since 1972, bought the building and announced they’d be moving in. It was an added bonus that they kept the Beavers logo for their marketing and merchandise, as well as the same commitment to serving the community that was the heart of Beavers Market. The co-op is also a beloved part of the community, so the marriage of it’s mission and the Beavers location is a particular kind of perfection. I’d been a member of the original co-op location back in the late 90s, but we’d moved away from Fort Collins and just never joined again. The day the co-op opened in the Beavers location, I once again happily became a member.
3. Reddit. I don’t always love it, because anywhere a lot of people congregate and share their opinions and preferences and struggles can get to be too much for me very fast. However, I’ve had lots of questions about things lately, have wanted to hear a collection of diverse opinions and experiences and get some advice, and it’s really one of the best places on the internet to find such a thing.
4. Online, on demand streaming content. Do I have too many subscriptions? Yes, yes I do. And yet, being able to find an old clip of one of your favorite skits from The Carol Burnett show, or watch a new comedy special or blooper reels or movie trailers, or listen to a podcast, or hear a bedtime story read by your favorite gay grandpa who lives in the mountains and looks a whole lot like Santa, or listen to your new favorite song over and over and over and over… it’s a good thing.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Things are good here, always so good.
Bonus joy: a warm shower, groceries, cleaning out a cabinet or two, putting out the trash, a big glass of cold clean water, Reese’s eggs, avocado, pickled red onions, scrambled eggs, writing with my Friday morning sangha, the dogs and humans who were at Red Sage for yoga this week, the pictures of Jon and Chelsey and their new place (even though I miss them), texting with Chloe’ and Chris, FINALLY texting with Carrie (I didn’t really give her a choice, I bombarded her with GIFs until she texted me back), other people’s kids and dogs, reading and writing in the morning with a few mugs of hot drinks, libraries and librarians, poets and poetry, comedy and comedians, the riot of bird song in the morning, making each other laugh, slow and steady, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 