jillsalahub

birthdayflowers

1. Time with friends. I got to spend some with three of them this week. I hadn’t seen them in awhile, and it was so good to be with them. We ate, laughed, cried, got covered in dog hair, and talked about important deep heart stuff.

2. My birthday. I’m happy to be celebrated, but also feel so grateful and lucky to get another year. I got to talk to my mom and brother, received some sweet gifts, was the center of a day long love fest on Facebook, and Eric made me a pie.

berrybirthdaypie

3. Winter lights in Old Town. I just love them so much.

oldtownlights

4. Ringo Blue turned two years old yesterday. I posted this picture on Facebook and Instagram, with this caption: “The first time I heard about him, I felt a flutter of knowing. The first time I saw a picture of him, I knew. The first time I held him, I was sure. Today when I was taking pictures of him as he tried not to fall asleep in his favorite chair, I could tell when he looked at me that he knew too.”

ringoistwo

5. Eric. For the pie, for walking the dogs every day twice a day while my foot rests, for taking them hiking too, for the sweet birthday card and the pie, and for making me laugh.

loryhike

Bonus joy: Two weeks down on the bathroom renovation and two to go (the latest: we have walls and they got painted today), the half bathroom at the back of our tiny house, how (mostly) good the dogs have been with all the chaos, a weekend off followed by a whole week off for Thanksgiving break, yoga, a chance to sub for my favorite class next week, sleep, clean water, Susannah Conway’s new ecourse “The Inside Story: Running a Heart-Centered Business” which is so good and perfectly timed it’s blowing my little mind.

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1. Truth: If you look long and close at just about anything, you will see how precious it is. In fact, I’ve heard various teachers suggest that love is nothing more than attention, that to give your full and focused attention to something or someone is how you love it. The Zen priest and poet John Tarrant Roshi said, “Attention is the most basic form of love. Through it we bless and are blessed.”

2. Truth: Today is my birthday. I’m 48 years old. I’m so grateful, so blessed by my life and so lucky to get to keep on living it, and yet I’m having a hard time understanding how that happened — how did I get to be 48 years old? How did all those years fly by so fast?

3. Truth: I’m curious what my 48th year will be like. I have some plans, could make some guesses about what might happen and how it will turn out, but in the end I have no idea, no way of knowing. For now, I’m keeping myself open to whatever might arise, practicing curiosity and patience.

One wish: That every year lived is welcomed with curiosity, remembered with gratitude, and spent giving attention to what is precious.