1. Morning walks. The light has been so gorgeous lately, with the later sunrise, a full moon, and all the rain.

2. Summer harvest. I can eat about six large fresh carrots a day, along with a few cucumbers. The peach pies Eric makes are the best, but even just plain the fruit is some kind of magic. This year we are going to be smart and freeze some. We also made fresh pesto last week. Yum. I also am loving going to the Farmer’s Market every Saturday and getting a fresh bouquet of flowers to put in my bathroom.

3. Aqua aerobics. I love it so much, and it feels so good. I don’t even care that I smell like chlorine all the time.

4. Practicing creative joy. It’s our monthly theme in the Open Heart Project this month. In the talk Susan sent out, she said that “creativity is an encounter with space, with nothingness” and that to meet it, we must be open, relaxed, willing to not know what’s going to happen and to allow whatever might arise. This practice has saved me, more times than I can count.

5. My tiny family. This is our last few days on vacation together, and I’m already missing them.

Bonus joy: making art in celebration of a friend’s birthday, meditating, writing, reading good books, sitting on the couch with a heating pad watching good tv, sunshine, a surprise breakfast date (we’ll, they were already going and let me tag along), being able to rent a car while mine is in the shop instead of trying to navigate our schedules with just one car, long naps, new knee braces, peach pie still warm from the oven, watching America’s Test Kitchen (not quite as good without Christopher Kimball) with Eric and saying we are going to make all the things, going to the gym and getting in the pool with him, clean sheets.