Gratitude Friday

1. Morning walks. I’m actually kind of bummed that the sun is coming up so early now. This week I didn’t even need to use my headlamp, but that also means we are entering the time of year we have to share the trail with lots more people after having it practically all to ourselves for months and months.

2. Practice. I am especially grateful this week for The Open Heart Project and all its teachers and offerings, as well as all the dharma teachers who’ve taken the time to write books about the path. It’s so nice to be able to access dharma teachings on my own timeline even if my teachers are no where near me or even still alive.

3. Reading. This is something I’ve loved my whole life, even before I could read for myself. Besides life, the love of reading is one of the best things my parents gave me. And it will be one of the greatest regrets of my life that there’s no way I can ever read all the books I want to read.

4. Nourishment. In particular, good food that feeds ALL of me. This week we had a day that was almost 80 degrees, so Eric and I went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Yesterday, I spend three hours cooking, made a bunch of salads (pasta slaw, broccoli slaw, and roasted sweet potato salad) and bran muffins, and right now as I type this, there are two loafs of glazed lemon zucchini bread in the oven.

5. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. I am SO lucky.

Bonus joy: the smell of citrus (lemon, lime, orange), a warm shower, that corner of the couch, shade when it’s hot outside, the early blooming flowers in my garden, raspberry plants from Janice’s garden, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, hanging out and writing and making plans for visiting Calyx, cooking for Chloe’, texting with Mom and Chris, other people’s dogs, the birds at the feeder, the shy tiny chickadees, bees, laundry, pay day, good movies (finally watched Nomadland and it was really good), good books, listening to podcasts while I cook, clean sheets, my laptop, my dining room “office,” my houseplants, good neighbors, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.