1. Colorado sunrises. There is something particularly magic about the sky here, and I feel so lucky to be up and out early enough to be able to see the sun come up and the various ways it lights up the sky.

2. Morning walks with the dogs. It hasn’t been long enough for me to start to take them for granted yet. It’s still fresh in my mind the long stretches of time in the last few years when I was injured or hurt or sick and couldn’t go.

I also love having lived somewhere long enough, walked enough miles on the same trails to have favorite spots, favorite trees, places where what happened there that one time is still such a clear memory. When things are really green in the spring, this is one of my favorite spots on the trail.

3. Good food. We finished watching the whole Samurai Gourmet series, so I’ve been craving Asian food lately, in particular a bowl of rice with vegetables and teriyaki chicken. I skipped a meeting the other day and took myself to lunch so I could finally have some. It was good, but it made me realize what I really wanted was the same thing from Love Love Teriyaki in Salem, Oregon.

4. The lilacs are blooming, so there’s flowers in the bathroom.

5. My tiny family. Ringo always makes me laugh, even when he’s being a jerk. I feel so tender about Sam because he’s the same age Obi was when he was diagnosed with Lymphoma, and with the worry this week about his health because of his tick bite, I’m reminded that we are “tangled up in love, running out of time,” (from “In the Middle,” a poem by Barbara Crooker). And when I woke up this morning feeling like I was getting sick, knowing if I walked the dogs in the rain like I’d promised Eric that it would seal the deal, he walked them for me, getting rained on almost the whole time.

Bonus joy: A good book, finishing the laundry, teaching yoga, having people see me and say so, writing with my dream Wild Writing class, saying “no,” putting on clean pajamas even if I haven’t managed to take a shower yet, the prospect of fresh biscuits and a nap later, tulips, clean water.