Gratitude Friday

1. Farmer’s market flowers. I know I’ve said it before, but my goal is to have a garden like she does where I can make bouquets like these for myself all season long. Maybe this summer I’ll get up the courage to ask if I can come to her house for a tour. She’s an art teacher, and my theory is that’s why her stuff is so gorgeous — she has an eye for it.

2. Insurance. Sometimes it feels like you pay and pay for nothing, and then a single hailstorm comes along, lasts less than 20 minutes but ruins your roof and both cars and you are happy to have paid because now you need the pay out and the help.

3. The robin and her babies who are living in our lilac bushes survived the storm. One of those balls of hail could have easily killed her or knocked her nest to the ground, but she’s still there, sitting happily on her brood. Our garden got through this storm okay too.

4. Ringo and Sam. Somehow neither Eric nor I took a single picture of Sam this week, but here’s one of silly Ringo.

5. Eric. Two introverts form a mostly functional adult. Thank goodness, because this week felt like we were adulting all over the place.

Bonus joy: swimming lessons (this week I swam on my back, with the help of a buoy and some flippers, and it was actually fun), yoga, aqua aerobics, clean sheets, naps, rain and cooler days, morning walks (Sam is up to 3.5 miles a day!), texting, Wild Writing, clean water, a warm shower and a clean towel, good books, going to the movies with Eric, Pop Tarts (sometimes it’s exactly what you need), strawberries from our garden.

1. Morning walks. Sam is up to a 2.5 mile walk in the morning, so we’ve been going together more often, all four of us, then one of the humans takes Ringo a few more miles.

2. Blooms, in our garden and elsewhere. Decades ago someone made the decision to plant climbing roses below our front window. It makes no sense and every year, I cut them way back and swear I’m going to try and move them or just get rid of them, but then they bloom and I don’t have the heart to do anything but thank them. The tall white irises below were given to me by my friend Ann, moved from her garden to mine the summer before she died. It makes me stupid happy to see them thriving, coming alive and blooming every year. And my garden goal of having something blooming from the beginning of the season to the end seems to be almost fully achieved.

3. Practice. Saving my life, keeping me sane, calming me down, helping me to cultivate courage and compassion.

4. Sam and Ringo. Sam is slowly and surely getting better. I still can’t tell if he’ll go back to being able to run 10 miles, go on a 14 mile hike, jump into the back of the big rig with confidence, or if I’ll ever stop watching him so close, trying so hard to keep him from getting hurt again, worrying about him, but I’m so grateful that he’s not in as much pain and he’s able to get around like a regular dog. Ringo is a contradiction of sweet and crazed, and I love that about him even as he’s driving me crazy.

5. Eric. He’s the best. He made a pie yesterday, spends every morning watering the garden and weeding, takes such good care of all of us and makes me laugh.

Bonus joy: a robin made a nest in our lilac bush (see picture below), swimming lessons, aqua aerobics, napping, strawberries from our garden, an afternoon thunderstorm, Wild Writing, texting, reading, good TV, going to the movies with Eric, clean sheets, catching up with the laundry, a pay raise at work, butterflies, sitting in the sauna, going out to lunch.