1. Morning walks. I’m excited for next week because I was looking on Google maps the other day and found two alternative routes at one of our favorite trails that I want to try, see where they go. It’s cooler and darker in the mornings now and I’m okay with that — for one, it means fewer people but more animals are out. And, while I may have to start the walk with a headlamp, we get to see the sun come up.

2. Practice. The past three Thursday mornings, people’s schedules were wonky, so I’ve been doing unplanned private yoga sessions at Red Sage, just one person each week but also a different person each week, and it’s been kind of fun. I adore teaching and practicing there. Zoom was being wonky, so sadly my writing sangha and I didn’t get to practice together Friday morning. Hopefully we get that figured out by next week because that practice session with those women is one of my favorite things. I’ve been meditating at random times this week. Rather than first thing in the morning each time, I’ve been sitting when the need hits me — and it has been on the regular because some sad anniversaries are coming up and a few friends are losing their dogs and the ability to sit with those big feelings is such a gift. Yoga, writing, and meditation keep me sane.

3. Fall. Yes, there are sad anniversaries, but other than that, this is my favorite season in Colorado. The way nature invites us to slow down and let go, how things start to turn towards quiet and stillness, how everything turns golden.

4. Mom. She for certain is slowing down some, becoming quieter, but she’s still here and still remembers us. I’m so grateful for the continued care and company she is getting. I posted this on my social media last week:

A phone call with my mom this weekend: She has late stage vascular dementia, so I wait until my brother is there visiting, call his phone, which he hands to Mom as he explains to her how to hold it and listen and who it is on the other end. She tried once, but her first question for me was a struggle to find the words, “Are you…are you…are you taking…a break?” which I know to mean “Are you at work?” which is something she always asks me even though I’m now mostly retired because it’s what she can remember of previous conversations with me. Frustrated by not being able to find the words, we said goodbye and I love you and she handed the phone back to my brother. Then in a few minutes, she asked to have the phone back.

On her second try, she began with “It’s hard to talk to you right now because I’m trying to eat,” but as my brother pointed out, she didn’t have anything in front of her to eat, there was no dinner plate or even a small bag of chips. After she said that, it started to pour down rain at my house, so I told her, and she said, “You can keep it!” which is what she’s always said to me about our weather, whether it’s hot or snowing or storming. Then she said, “I’m going to hand this back to Dad,” which meant my brother, and with another goodbye and I love you, I was talking to him and not my dad, who has been gone for two years now.

We got off his phone a few minutes later and in another few minutes, my brother texted, “I know this might make you sad, but she just picked up the TV remote and said to it, ‘Hey, can you hear me?'” ❤️💔

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. My favorite, my favorite, my favorite.

Bonus joy: peaches and corn and watermelon and tomatoes — the last of the season, texting with Chris and Chloe’, stickers, clean sheets, a warm shower, grapefruit Bubly, when King Soopers sends customized coupons based on things I regularly buy (I know the “Big Brother” aspect of that is creepy, but also thanks for the discounts on stuff I was probably gonna buy anyway!), ordering pizza, all the laundry done and put away, tarot, sitting with Eric and Ringo in the backyard, how green our yard is right now, the opportunity to start over as many times as necessary, other people’s dogs and kids and gardens, good TV, listening to podcasts, getting books from the library for my Kindle, the glitter I keep finding everywhere, comedy, true crime, documentaries, good music, naps, fry sauce, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.