1. Morning walks. Eric sprained his ankle pretty badly hiking last weekend, so I’ve been doing all the morning walks. Typically, during the academic year, we share, with me walking every other day during the week and Eric taking the other days plus the weekend. This way, on the morning I teach yoga and the weekend mornings in particular, I can stay in bed past 5 am and have a slower paced morning. If you made me choose between a walk and a later slower start, I’d say don’t make me choose because I like the mix of both. And yet, I have to admit (and this is the good news and the bad for me), after a few days of adjustment, my knees (with a combo of old injuries and arthritis) actually feel better the more I walk. Now that Eric is on summer break, once his ankle feels better, we can hopefully take more walks together. Two sightings of note this week: a kestrel at Kestrel Fields and wild irises by McMurry Ponds.

2. Practice. Writing with my Friday morning sangha, yoga with Red Sage, sitting in meditation in my practice room, making art, writing in the morning in front of my HappyLight with a mug of something warm. I’m thinking I might need to consider reading as a practice too, because while I do a lot of reading just for fun, I also do a lot that would be considered study, (currently The Indigenous People’s History of The United States and When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, which I’m rereading for the 4th time).

3. Eric on summer break. It’s the first summer he hasn’t had a project to work on over the summer, the first real break he’s had in two years — two years that included hard things like my dad dying, my mom having a stroke, his mom dying, my mom being diagnosed with vascular dementia, and having to place my mom in a hospice care facility, plus a huge project that meant he essentially had two jobs.

I told Eric this morning that one of my favorite things about him is that when he’s bored/not working, he cleans and does projects around the house and in the yard and garden — he can’t really sit still for long while I’m too good at sitting still. While Ringo and I were on our walk this morning, Eric cleaned our living room carpet (Ringo is blowing his winter undercoat so it needed it), cleaned the main bathroom, put away some laundry, did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, DUSTED (WHO does this?! Not me, obviously), and replaced the toothbrush head on my electric toothbrush. Of course, along with his cleaning I also enjoy his company, as he is my favorite human, and I look forward to spending more time with him. 

4. Leaves on the trees, blooms on the flowers. I love fall and winter the most, but there’s just something about spring, when the birds return and everything comes back alive. It always reminds me of one of my favorite poems, “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. It’s hail season here, so even if we don’t get much, we have rain and storms and the weather can be unpredictable. I’m postponing doing much of anything in the garden yet, other than excitedly counting all the potential blooms on my peonies and waiting for the robin’s eggs in the nest in our lilac bush to hatch. I think this year will be more about cleaning up and maintaining than doing much new in the garden, at least until the fall when I’d like to add more bulbs and maybe a few smaller trees. I want our garden to be a habitat, a haven, and that takes time when you are doing so with your own two hands, four if you count Eric, which when it comes to the garden, you must count.

Bonus joy: our whole house fan, being able to open all the windows, bees, birds at my feeder, honey locust trees — they seem especially bright this year, other people’s kids and dogs and gardens, seeing the first meadowlark in our garden, fry sauce, onion buns, true crime, comedy, listening to podcasts, poetry and poets, libraries and librarians, hospice care, KIND dipped nut clusters, my big calendar from Japan, stickers, having a washer and dryer in my house, yogurt with granola and berries, being able to rest, a warm shower, a big glass of clean cold water, good neighbors, sunshine, how in the afternoon our backyard is covered in shade, how soft new green grass is, glasses, vaccines, gummies, soft bread, pickles, walking along the river, clean sheets, down blankets and pillows, soft merino wool, baby animals, my therapist and nutritionist and acupuncturist, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.