Image by Eric

1. May, a whole new month. This means pay day for Eric, paying bills for me, which gives me such a sense of calm, knowing that we still have an income, can pay our bills and buy groceries, get the dogs the care they need. It’s also the full shift from winter to working in the garden. Things are blooming and we are getting our vegetable garden ready for the seeds Eric started. This summer will be something other than we planned — we cancelled our trip to Oregon to visit family, the 10 days we were going to spend at the beach, and my cousin postponed her wedding — and yet, there will be summer.

2. Working in the garden. Weeding our garden at the start of the season takes at least a week, maybe two to get things under control, since the grass and bindweed are determined to own the front yard, and I have no interest in using poison to stop their spread. So that’s the focus right now, cleaning things up so we can cover it with mulch, which we got delivered this week. Isn’t it funny how you initially think you’ll be able to weed an entire flower bed, and you work on it for an hour but barely get anything done? I thought I’d do the whole front burm the first day, but only finished one small section. The next day’s goal was the center bed and I only finished one corner. Gardening definitely teaches you patience, but also a particular sort of joy.

3. My goofy sun hat. It’s kind of ridiculous, but I also kind of love it.

4. Morning walks. I haven’t been able to do as many of these as I’d like, as I have some plantar fasciitis in my left foot. Something exciting happened during one of them: there was a heron standing at the edge of the river fishing, and it caught one! Swallowed it whole and then bent over to put its beak in the river, shook it around like it was washing its face. I’d never seen one actually get a fish.

5. My tiny family. I’m so glad to be with them, to love them, to be loved by them.

Bonus joy: so much good stuff, still; such as a livestreamed poetry reading and Q&A with Andrea Gibson, Do You Need a Ride? podcast, Maria Bamford’s new comedy special, hanging out with Mikalina, texting with my mom and brother, comedy, music, poetry, movies, TV shows, food, books, podcasts, plants, water, animals, sunshine, sleep, practice. And the things I miss: swimming pools, eating food at a restaurant, coffee dates, browsing bookstores, group yoga classes, tea with Chloe’, other people’s dogs, the sauna, teaching yoga, going to a movie and getting popcorn, grocery shopping, the beach, hugging my friends, my family.