1. Morning walks. Ringo and I are both taking it slow right now, but we are there as the world starts to turn green and bloom. I am also dreaming of walks on the beach. Speaking of dreams, yesterday I was having one in which I was petting Ringo and I woke up to find that I was “petting” my pillow! 🙂

2. Good books. I’m still working my way through everything Brianna Wiest has written. I’m also reading a novel that would make an excellent book club read, The Measure. It brings up so many questions about mortality and choice. As the description says, “As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?” There are at least six other books I’m in the midst of, as always — a bad habit I developed in graduate school.

3. Practice. I had a super anxious day on Friday, and it was another reminder of how much having a set of regular practices helps me to stay sane.

4. Having a reset, a retreat. I’m looking forward to our trip to Oregon, our time at the beach in particular. Now that Ringo is 10.5, I’ll be savoring that time with him, because we never know when “the last trip” will be, (we didn’t know with the other three dogs either). Eric and I are going to take a break from social media while gone, and I may not blog at all. Instead, I’ll be meditating in front of the glorious wall of windows looking out over the ocean, reading all the books, taking long walks on the beach, eating so much good food, napping, and enjoying the time with my two favorites. We rented the house we know has the best view because there will be a bit more rain than usual because we are going so early in the season and we won’t necessarily be outside as much. Fingers crossed the fog doesn’t block our view on those days.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. What “home” means to me.

Bonus joy: cooking, fresh eggs, making art with Janice, sending reels and memes to Shelly and Carrie and Kari, texting with Chloe’, Ringo getting to “play” with Teri, the lunch buffet at Mount Everest Café, breakfast for dinner, clean laundry, a warm shower, a clean cold glass of water, cheese, baby carrots, making Ringo’s food, all the cherry trees bursting at once, writing with Nicki, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna, doing yoga again after so long, sleeping in, watching good TV and movies, listening to podcasts, being able to “check out” library books on my Kindle and keep them past their due date by turning on airplane mode, that Instagram reel I saw of the litter of puppies being sung a lullaby and how fast they settle down, finding out there’s another video of the same puppies with a different song, blue sky, one day of rain perfect for napping, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.