1. Morning walks. Just a normal week of walking with Ringo would have been so wonderful, after being away for a few weeks. Add to that the surge of fall color and cooler weather and I’m in my happiest place. It’s just so beautiful here in the fall.
Another sign of fall: this year’s whitetail babies have lost their spots. One of the mamas would walk right up to me if I let her, but I always have Ringo with me and don’t want her to be anymore trusting than she already is, so I move away once she gets too close.
2. Being home. I finally am settled enough that I know where I am when I wake up, and I’m so glad to be here.
3. Eric and I have been married for 31 years, celebrated our anniversary this week. This past year has been one of the hardest because I’ve needed to spend lots of time in Oregon navigating the loss of my dad and providing the care my mom now needs, and that’s meant I’ve been away from Eric more days this year than ever before, and that sucks. He’s my home, my soft place to land, my favorite. I’d happily spend another 31 years with him.
4. Practice. This week, I was back practicing with the humans at Red Sage, and we had a special visitor: Teri’s new puppy. I think I’ve graduated into a whole new level of teaching ability because I was able to mostly keep it together and teach a coherent class, even with the distraction.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I love it here.
Bonus joy: a fully stocked refrigerator, hoodies and wool socks, my infrared heating pad, small group training with Shelby and the gang, soup and a visit from Chloe’, texting with Chris, tiny brass animals, stickers, toast, plantain chips and dip (I thought I was over it, but no…), the smell of rabbitbrush, golden leaves falling in the breeze, the color of the ash trees, good books, good TV (I’m usually way late to the current popular stuff, but I watched Nobody Wants This, and it was really good), poetry and poets, music and musicians, making art just because, cancelled plans (even if I have FOMO after), Mt. Everest Café (I am currently obsessed, which is strange for a place that I’ve been eating for 20 years that hasn’t really changed), acupuncture, twinkle lights (tis the season!), writing in the morning with a hot mug of green tea, my weighted blanket, gummies, texting with Chris, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
7. Well versed: the pharmacy that dispenses poems instead of medicine. “Fresh from opening a London branch of the Poetry Pharmacy, peddling literary first aid to a new generation from the most famous shopping street in the world, founder Deb Alma explains why poetry is in motion.”
13. How We Chose the 2024 TIME100 Next. “Now in its fifth year, the TIME100 Next list was created to recognize that many of today’s most influential leaders are, like the 27-year-old Brown, individuals who are not waiting long in life to make an impact. Nor are they eager to respect the status quo by following the traditional power structures and pathways that have determined what influence looked like in the past. TIME100 Next has no age requirements; its aim is to recognize that influence does not have them either, nor does leadership look like it once did. Indeed, the majority of the individuals on this year’s list are leaders of color; more than half are women.”
15. Diplomacy, Not War. A recent edition of My Civic Workout that is especially urgent.
16. John Amos, ‘Good Times’ Dad, Dies at 84. “He played Gordy the weatherman on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and earned an Emmy nom for his turn as the older Kunta Kinte on ‘Roots.'” And let’s not forget him playing one of the dads in ‘Coming to America.’
28. Hurricanes and Hard Truths. “Much like the wildfire smoke that engulfed the east coast last year, Helene is one more in a series of reminders that while there are certainly patterns at work as the atmosphere warms, there is no easy way to know where the next climate disaster will strike, who exactly will be in its way, or how one should prepare. It’s a deeply disorienting reality in which we find ourselves, to say the least.” In related news, Climate change is destroying American homes. Who should have to move?
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 