Gratitude Friday

1. Seeing all the animals on our walks. This week we saw a deer, a beaver, a pair of herons, this turtle (Eric wasn’t believing me that the swirly marks on the trail were turtle tracks, until he saw the actual turtle who’d made them), and two of this year’s baby foxes.

2. Wonder Woman at the Drive In. We try to go at least once a year, earlier in the summer rather than later because even then we can only stay up long enough to watch the first movie!

3. SUMMER VACATION! Yesterday I sufficiently bribed the person who’s going to water my plants for me while I’m gone, ate the last of the good chocolate, and put the out of office message on my email. I need this time off so bad.

4. My tiny family. One of the things I need most out of this vacation is more time with them.

5. Peony season. I just consolidated the six jars full I had in the house into a single one because most of them were starting to wilt. With the heat this past week, there’s no more new ones left to cut. They make me so happy, and I’m always so sad to see them go.

Bonus joy: my Siberian irises (they went crazy this year and had multiple blooms per stem which I didn’t even realize was possible; my friend Ann gave them to me, thinned them from her own garden the year she died, so they mean a lot to me), a cool shower after a long walk, sun screen, bug spray, fresh strawberries from our garden, a dream about Dexter, good books, good tv, good movies, good podcasts, clean sheets, a long nap, air conditioning, stretching, yoga.

1. Only one more week of work! Then, I get to be on summer vacation for two months. This past month has been about doing just the bare minimum, because even that was really too much, so a lot has slipped through the cracks or piled up. I’m looking forward to more space in my days, less responsibility, more reading and writing, answering some lingering emails, finally getting to some house projects that have been put off for too long, puttering in the garden, really taking care of my body, spending time with friends, long naps and walks with Eric and the dogs.

One of the house projects I need to get to: painting the house. It’s so faded now it looks almost blue when it should be a deep green.

2. Our front garden. We’ve been getting lots of strawberries and my flowers are all coming in so good this year.

3. Walking in the morning with Eric and the dogs. It’s one of the very best things.

4. Opportunities for learning and growth. The Social Justice Leadership Institute I attended the first part of the week, the Coaching as Activism program I’ve been in that has only one week left, the Creating Inclusive Excellence Program I’ll start in the fall, all the super smart and generous women (of color, in particular) who keep showing up willing to resist, write and teach and do their work in a way that I can easily access and benefit from.

5. Peonies. It’s that time of year, y’all. My garden is overflowing, which means so is my house. They just are so gorgeous!

Bonus joy: working from home, a meeting that went well when I hadn’t expected it to, clean sheets, a warm shower, clean water, a long nap, good books, good TV, good movies, some great shows coming up at the Lincoln Center so that I can go to concerts and shows at night like a grown up but still be home by 10 pm cause it’s only ten minutes from my house, bees, fresh strawberries, ice, pinto beans, good tortillas, meditation, yoga, writing, sleepy dogs with stinky feet.