1. Morning walks. We had some cooler weather and storms this week, and it was lovely, although humid. Things are turning golden and the rabbitbrush is blooming — which I didn’t know until now is a shrub in the sunflower family. Eric and I both saw the baby whitetails and their mamas on separate walks. Since Ringo typically doesn’t bark at them unless they are running away, the tiny herd Eric saw were walking right up to him, got so close. Ringo also found a new lost toy this morning. It’s just so cute to me how happy and almost proud he seems when he finds one, how he thinks it’s his job to “rescue” them and bring them home.
2. Practice: writing every morning, meditating in my practice room, yoga at Red Sage, my Friday morning writing sangha which I had to skip this week because of a doctor’s appointment which made it so clear how much I love it and miss it if I can’t be there.
3. Eric, or as he’s being called today, Elfis. Every year, his D&D group invite other players to an all day event with a theme and costumes. This year was disco 70s, so Eric’s character was a karate loving elf Elvis impersonator. He might not dress up for Halloween or Tour de Fat, and he is still a massive introvert, but he goes all out for Stefcon. After at least seven years of this event, our garage looks like the costume closet of a high school drama department. He is such a nerd and I love it.
Here’s a few costumes from years past.
4. The magic and the mundane of life. When I got in my car yesterday on my way to a doctor’s appointment, two hummingbirds stopped to rest in our lilac bush right above where I was parked.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I am exactly where I always wanted to be, doing what I always wanted to do, and my two favorites are here with me. Eric and Ringo have this cute routine when Eric comes home from work where they greet each other and then get on the floor and Ringo gets some extra love.
Bonus joy: Jessamy’s birthday, the baby growing in her belly, pictures of her other two “babies” having fun at the state fair, texting with Chris and Chloe’, Sunday morning Pilates, how good it feels to stretch, how great my primary care doctor is, therapy, a check up of a 20 year old tooth implant that ended with “it all looks good” and also seeing our dental hygienist Teri at the office working (they implied at Eric’s last cleaning with a different technician that she’d retired), Mom doing well even as her primary nurse says she’s “slowly winding down,” Liminal’s spicy sesame bowl, peaches and watermelon and corn on the cob, good TV (I just finished both seasons of Love Hurts on Netflix and really liked it), libraries and librarians, poetry and poets, listening to podcasts, streaming music libraries, listening to music loud while I drive around with my windows rolled down, making a playlist for my yoga class, comedy and comedians, true crime, getting books from the library on my Kindle, onion buns, a big glass of cold clean water, gummies, the way the light shifts as it turns towards fall, night lights, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 