1. Morning walks. There is still the tiniest bit of gold lingering, and we don’t yet have to wait too long into the morning for the sun to rise. I did have to admit finally one day this week that I needed to wear gloves if it was below freezing. I had my snow tires put on last week, but it’s more an act of reckless optimism, wild hope that this year, maybe this year, we might have the kind of snow I remember and love so much, as most days are still lingering in the 50s and even 60s and we haven’t had a hard freeze yet and it’s still so dry. I love fall. It’s my favorite season, and I don’t mind when it goes long, but I don’t want to, can’t lose a real true winter. I’m so grateful that Ringo seems to be lingering in his own fall season, that he gets out with me in the early morning, sniffing and picking up sticks and peeing on all the things, happy to be with me too.

2. Practice. After two weeks of a more energetic yoga flow at Red Sage, this past week we did a full hour where we never even got off the floor. It was lovely. I am also loving attending a class twice a week, getting to know the teacher and the other people who come to practice and getting to experience a practice where someone else is deciding what comes next. We had almost a full group on Friday morning for our wild-ish writing session, and even though no one was signed up for spark poems and we were picking them in the moment without a plan, they turned out to be so good. It was magic and medicine, as always. And no, I did not get my practice room reset to start meditating on the regular again, and this week doesn’t look good either — and that’s okay.

3. Flowers in the house. They just make me happy. I can’t get over the buttery yellow petals of these sunflowers Eric got me, and I am always happy to see my Thanksgiving cacti bloom, to have kept them alive for another year.

4. Book club brunch. My book club has started meeting recently on Sunday mornings, so instead of snacks we’ve been having a full-on brunch. This week is croissants with ham and without, zucchini slice (an egg bake dish first made popular in Australia), coffee cake, and berries. We will be discussing Angel Down, a horror novel set in the trenches of WW1 — a brutal read but the writing is amazing (it won the Pulitzer Prize). Next session is my pick, and I’m offering these three options: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher, All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva, or The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi. Our book club is an interesting dynamic, because it consists of three married couples, three men and three women, all with wildly varying reading preferences and practices and positions.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Ringo and I’s birthdays are next week and Eric’s is next month, and Eric will have a week off for Thanksgiving and soon be on winter break, so this morning I made a list of all the things we might do. It’s almost as fun to make the plans as it is to do the things, but maybe that’s because we are both introverts. I can’t even begin to measure or express how grateful, happy, lucky I am that Ringo is going to have this birthday — 13 years old! So far, of the other three dogs, the oldest only made it to 10.5. Even better, Ringo is doing so well, isn’t just old but seems to be at ease and comfortable and enjoying his life.

Bonus joy: trying to find the best breakfast burrito in town, pizza for dinner, leftovers, roasted veggies, having all the laundry done, my infrared heating pad, sitting in the sauna, the hydromassage chair, my new physical therapist, my acupuncturist, my primary care physician, saying “thank you” and “I’m so grateful for you” now rather than waiting for a special occasion or waiting too long and leaving it until it’s too late, texting with Chris and Chloe’, Zoom, wi-fi, a new blank notebook, stickers, staying off social media (although with my birthday next week, I might have to active my accounts again because I can use all the birthday love I can get, being the first one without my mom), citrus, going out to eat with Eric, down blankets and pillows, wool hats and sweaters and slippers, being able to afford and access specialized extra care for both Ringo and myself, gas points from the grocery store, getting back to my small group training boot camp class at the gym, aqua aerobics, fig spread, smoked gouda, knowing how to cook and bake and having access to good recipes, my mom’s “fancy” dishes and silverware, the way Ringo follows me around and how much he likes me being home all the time, a warm shower, computer glasses, all the new glasses I got from Zenni — so many tortoise frames, how easy it was to return the ones that didn’t work, gummies, comedy, documentaries, streaming content, libraries, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.