1. Morning walks. They’ve been a bit unusual this past week because Sam has had a tiny limp that won’t go away (only happens when he first gets up after having been resting for a bit, and he only limps about 3 or 4 steps, so you barely notice it, but he’s 8 years old now and we have to be careful) so we’ve been making him rest. We have a vet appointment scheduled for next week just in case it doesn’t clear up. You might not know this about me, but anything like that makes me anxious, because I always worry that every little weird thing is the first sign of cancer, and not just cancer but fatal cancer, because it’s happened to us like that two times and I keep expecting it to happen again because so far that’s been our reality. So an extra gratitude linked to this one is that while I worry, in this case Eric isn’t worried and has been able to keep me mostly sane.

2. The sky and the bare trees. The winter can be cold and dark, but it can also be beautiful.

3. Baby Ringo, back when his ears were just starting to stand up.

4. Teaching yoga. I subbed twice this week. This morning was almost a disaster because even though I KNEW I was teaching this morning, I forgot somewhere between Wednesday and today. I slept in and was being lazy, totally forgetting I was supposed to teach. Luckily my phone was in my hand when the notification went off, “Yoga: I’m Teaching!” and I only live five minutes away from the gym where I was subbing.

5. Aqua aerobics and then ten minutes in the sauna. Just look at how happy and pink it makes me.

6. My tiny family, and an explanation — many times when Eric and I text each other, we say “How’s it going?” and then include a selfie of wherever we happen to be at the moment. That’s why there’s a picture in this post of me at Om Ananda as I was getting ready to teach, and me in the gym locker room after aqua aerobics and the sauna, and the ones that follow of Eric and I with the dogs.

Bonus joy: Wild writing, Friday !!!, homemade pizza, a crispy gala apple with peanut butter, a working furnace, warm water, clean sheets, texting, Ringo doing well in his Parkour class even though we hadn’t had time to practice, how much more spacious my schedule is next week, and this cutie…

1. Where we live. There are lots of things to complain about or critique here, but the river and the sky and the trails and the snow and the foxes and how close they all are to where we sleep are not on that list.

2. Practice. Wild writing, meditation, yoga, being in relationship with other humans, letting go.

3. Flowers in the bathroom. A few weeks back, I got a bundle of these. The sign bragged that they would last for three weeks. It turns out to be true, and the more they open the more they remind me of sweet peas, which reminds me of summer in Oregon.

4. My tiny family. The way Eric and I check in with each other during the day by sending a selfie of where we are and what we are doing. The comfort of coming home after a long day. The hope that Sam’s tiny limp will right itself and he won’t get older too quickly. How good Ringo did in our Parkour class last week even though we’d missed the week before and hadn’t practiced at all. There are always more pictures of Ringo because he’s so photogenic, but Sam is still sweeter.

5. Snow. And snow tires, and snow shovels, and ice scrapers, and my icebug shoes with the spikes, and wool hats and shirts and socks, down coats and pillows and blankets, and a headlamp.

Bonus joy: getting stronger in all kinds of ways, chocolate, roasted sweet potatoes, clean sheets, a good thermal shirt that’s soft and warm, good friends, the promise of more space, breakfast burritos, an empty parking spot, Pilates, aqua aerobics, the sauna, good books, a new episode of Catfish, flocks of tiny birds, computer glasses, people who shovel their sidewalks, our furnace.