1. Morning walks. This time of year, they can be dark, cold, and windy, but I still love them so much.

2. Good people. They are everywhere, and I’m lucky to call some of them my friends, my family. When “the shit hits the fan,” you learn who is up to the task, who is going to stick around and help. There will be people you expected more from that will leave you disappointed, but I don’t dwell there for too long. I wish them well and let them go. And the others, the ones who show up and stay, hold space — they are precious. They will make soup or send pie, send cards and texts and leave comments on your posts, bring flowers from their gardens, check in on you, totally understand when you have to cancel plans, give you hugs, and make you laugh.

3. Practice. It is the center of everything, the first and the last thing, the thing I can do poorly or well and it has the same benefits, my soft spot to land, the ground, my refuge.

4. Fall. In particular the color, the slowing down, the light, the quiet.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. October 9th was Eric and I’s 30th anniversary. I feel so lucky, not just that I found my person and am so happy, but that he feels exactly the same way. 

Bonus joy: dark chocolate covered salted caramels, zucchini muffins, falling leaves, color printers, help with the hard things, kitchen counter love notes, books, listening to podcasts, clean sheets, funeral casserole, my heating pad, down blankets and pillows and coats, wool socks, vaccines, stretching, naps, the pool, sitting in the sauna, massage, catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while, other people’s babies and kids and dogs and gardens, saying what needs to be said, watercolors, trees, trails, garbage people, grocery shopping, clean laundry, texting with Chris and Mom and Chloe’, going to Little Bird Bakeshop with Carrie, lemon poppy seed scones, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.