1. Morning walks. This week we had three different seasons of weather: warm & dry, cooler & rainy with sun breaking through, and big wet snow.

2. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! She seems to be settling in okay at her new place, is happy watching her movies and having visitors and the view out her window, although there’s a rumor that she thinks the food is “terrible.” It’s hard to know how seriously to take that, considering the last few times I cooked for her when she was still at home, she didn’t like what I made even though they were things she’d liked in the past, and even if you ask her exactly what she wants to eat, it’s sometimes hard for her to tell you or even know. It wouldn’t surprise me if both the cooking and the care weren’t up to Tokarski Home standards, but they are a model that make it hard for most places to compare, to come even close. And if it turns out she’s not happy there, we have other options. I’ll have a better sense when I can see for myself next month and when she’s been there a bit longer.

Chris has been busy working on getting her house ready to sell — plumbing projects, painting inside and out, replacing hardware, choosing new flooring, and keeping the lawn watered and mowed. It’s looking really good, and I’ll be glad when we can stage and list it so he can be done with all the extra work and responsibility.

3. Practice. I told my yoga students this week that sometimes when we feel the most ick, the least likely to want to do yoga, that’s usually when we really need it, and after practicing for close to 20 years, I’ve learned that on the days I “just don’t wanna,” if I do, I always feel better for it. Writing with my Friday morning sangha was magic, medicine. And I’ve been doing a short course with Sarah Blondin on my Insight Meditation app called “This Deepest Self” (she offers it on her website too) as part of my practice and it’s been really good.

4. Ringo’s care team. I’m so grateful for the loving, wise care they offer my aging dog, and just as thankful to the support and compassion they offer me, his prone to health anxiety human.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m continuing to replace furniture, clean and organize and purge. There’s also similar effort to be made in the garden before we go. Eric is almost on summer break and we both are looking forward to our time together next month at the coast and after when we get back home.

Bonus joy: a massage, a haircut, pizza for dinner, book club, getting in the pool and the sauna, clean sheets, sitting in the backyard with Ringo and Eric, planning to get more plants when we get back from Oregon and having a new space for them with good light (the new bookshelf pictured above), texting with Chris and Chloe’, writing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee and warm mug of green tea, good books, good TV and movies, listening to podcasts, Noah Kahan’s new album, wool Haflinger slippers, down blankets and pillows, a warm shower, how fast Ringo settled into acupuncture with Bronwen, how many buds there are on my peonies and how fast they bounced back after getting buried in the snow, our neighbors moving so we won’t have to look at their MAGA flags anymore, Mary’s Mountain Cookies, seeing my primary care practitioner, my A1C and blood pressure and cholesterol numbers all continuing to improve, finding the right sized box for something I need to mail, good boxes, oranges, limes, potatoes, clean water, the extra moisture in the weather, sunshine, Sunday morning Pilates, sleeping in, our new futon mattress (not sure when it stops being “new”), naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.