Gratitude Friday

Note: It was a busy week last week, and I kept losing track of the days. I’m trying to get a lot done before I have to go back to work next month but I’m also in that wonderful limbo of vacation time where some days the most important thing is to eat a ripe peach and take a nap, and stuff keeps coming up, like a broken tooth that needs to come out. I have so much I want to write about, share here, but it’s still one of those strange fallow seasons for a bit longer I think.

1. Morning walks. To be honest, I haven’t been going on many the past few weeks. This morning, as I was sleeping in (sleeping in around here means until 6 or 6:30 am instead of getting up at 5 am), I heard the click of the dogs’ harnesses and the open and close of the door, realized I was missing another walk, and I recommitted to getting up at 5 am every morning, even if I’m tired and it’s hard. I want to get back into the habit.

2. Flowers in the bathroom. My flower person at the Farmer’s Market was in Iowa last Saturday instead of opening her booth, so Eric brought me these amazing sunflowers from the grocery store. It was double gratitude – that he’s so thoughtful and the reminder of how amazing the Farmer’s Market flowers are.

3. Joyful movement and practice. Yoga, Pilates, meditation, writing, aqua aerobics, swimming lessons.

4. Sweet Sam and Ringo Blue. I didn’t take many pictures of them this week for some reason, even though they were just as sweet and cute as ever. Ringo had a play date with his best friend Pancho and I forgot to even take any pictures of how happy they were to see each other.

5. Eric. He is so kind, so funny, and takes such good care of me. He brought me flowers, has been so sweet as I manage the pain of waiting for a broken tooth to get pulled (followed by a bone graft and then an implant), bought me more Palisade peaches, and made me a pineapple upside down cake on the bbq grill.

It wasn’t pretty, but oh my did it taste good.

This is what it’s like when Ringo is done napping. “Wake up, Dad!”

Bonus joy: while Ringo was playing with his friend Pancho I got to hang out with his person who is one of my favorites, seeing the documentary RBG with another of my favorites and the rice krispie treat from the concession stand, seeing a movie with Eric and sharing his popcorn, the Japanese cucumbers from our garden (so sweet and super crunchy), good books (reading The Power right now), good TV, new music, swimming on my back across the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, eating as many peaches as I want, trying a new recipe, a quick Zoom chat with another one of my favorites, rain storms, our whole house fan, a glass of cold clean water.

1. Farmer’s Market flowers in the bathroom. When I get a new bunch, I take what is still left alive from the week before, trim it down and put it on my writing desk.

2. Rain. It’s been over 90 degrees for days and days, so the big rainstorm yesterday afternoon was a nice break, and it was an extra bonus it didn’t include any hail.

3. Swimming. Y’all, I am learning so much! This week, while I was practicing, I swam in the lap lane. Let me say that one more time, make sure you really heard it — I SWAM in the lap lane! My favorite is wearing my fins and kicking across the pool on my back.

4. Practice. Sam helped me meditate a few times this week.

5. Peach and cherry season. When we go to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow, we are buying a whole box of Palisade peaches so we can cut them up and freeze them, still have them once the season is over.

6. Baby birds. We are a bit sad, because it seems there are only two left in the nest, not because they are big enough to fly away or be on their own, but because something not good happened to them (we don’t know exactly what, and found no evidence of anything, but there are only two left when there were four — and then three and now two).

Four

Four

Three

Two

7. Sam and Ringo. My best friends. It’s been hot, so there’s been a lot of lounging going on around here.

8. And this guy. He’s my very very very best friend. I love the pictures he sends me when he’s out with the dogs. Because of the heat, they drive around in an air-conditioned car in the afternoon more then they get out to walk, just to feel like they got to do something.

Bonus joy: teaching yoga, swimming lessons, aqua aerobics, Pilates, coffee with a friend, Instagram, good books (still reading Pachinko, a National Book Award Finalist, by Min Jin Lee but almost done, and I think I might get Children of Blood and Bone next, a young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi), good TV (we started watching the beginning of the last season of The Great British Baking Show on PBS, and now I’m craving cake), good movies, going to the movies with Eric (we saw “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” and “Oceans 8” last week), sleeping in, a cold glass of clean water, a good yoga music mix, getting paid for doing something I love.