Gratitude Friday

lightball

1. Eric. Since my foot has been wrecked, he has taken over all the dog walking. This is no small thing, kind and gentle reader — our dogs get walked 5-6 miles every morning and another 2-3 every afternoon. I can’t wait to be well enough to start sharing the load again, but until I am, I’m so grateful Eric can, and more importantly that he doesn’t ever complain about it.

2. Our bathroom remodel is moving along. It’s a small crew, but they work really hard, are nice and funny and good at what they do, and are friendly to my dogs. When we had our kitchen remodeled all those years ago, the contractor and his lead guy were really good, but they had kind of crappy subcontractors, so I especially appreciate this crew. Yesterday they put in the new fan. Since we haven’t had one the whole time we’ve lived here (apparently that wasn’t a thing in the 60’s), it seems like some kind of magic.

3. Going to the gym every day. I was really struggling with what to do about my gym membership, struggling to get there at all. There are some things about it I don’t like (unstaffed weekend hours specifically) and making the transition from working out as a way of punishing myself to working out because it feels good and doing so without my trainer was proving to be really sticky and difficult. But without a functioning shower or tub during the remodel, my best option for a shower is to go to the gym every day. I’m glad for that because I’ve been realizing what a great little community I have there. I am getting hugs from various people every time I go in, people who genuinely missed me, and today one woman even stopped her workout and followed me into the locker room squealing my name she was so happy to see me. I also think that even though I still have to be so careful because of my foot, it’s actually helping my foot to do a bit more, to cultivate some of the strength I’ve lost over the last few months.

4. Our first snow. It wasn’t much and now the back yard is a muddy mess, but it was pretty the morning it happened, and later that day Eric took the dogs hiking up at Lory State Park.

snowhiking

5. Getting good work done, even with the chaos of my schedule and location. Part two of this item is being able to let go, forgive myself when I can’t get work done because of the chaos of my schedule and location.

6. Sam and Ringo. Being able to go on a walk alone with them. How good they are being even with all the noise and strange people in and out of the house. How much of a cuddle bug Ringo is turning into. How well Sam’s eyes are doing, (he has Pannus, but with special eye drops we are so far able to keep it pretty clear).

cuddlebug

Couching

1. Awake in the World. I’m pretty sure you can still sign up for this, even though it’s now day two of five. I think Lodro and Susan (pictured above in the opening night video) said 23,000 people had signed up.

2. A surprise (to me) Jonatha Brooke concert. I feel enough gratitude for this one that it could be the only thing on this list, and every list for the next month. Thursday afternoon, I got a Facebook message from a new friend. She said, “Totally last minute…but is there any chance you’d want to go to a concert tonight? It’s part of Bohemian Nights. A lady I met at a retreat 2 yrs ago (from NYC) is here tonight. Her name is Jonatha Brooke. She’s a singer-songwriter type.” I had to read it two or three times, and then get online and check to be sure I was reading it right. Jonatha Brooke?! She’s only one of my favorite artists! How did I not know she was coming to town?! Well, I know why. When her new show and album came out, My Mother has 4 Noses, (which I helped fund), I wanted to see it so bad, but she was mostly playing it on the east coast with a few dates in California. I gave up after a while, stopped checking, stopped carefully reading her newsletter when it showed up in my inbox. But it worked out, I got to go, and it was amazing. She signed CDs after the show, so I stuck around, told her how much I adore her, hugged her and thanked her. It was magic, medicine.

Her music always makes me cry. She sings with such fierce gentleness from such a deep, authentic place, and sometimes it punches me right in the gut. I tried to hold it together during the concert, but these two songs broke me open.

3. My tiny family — Eric, Sam, and Ringo Blue. They are a constant comfort. They make me laugh and remind me that life is beautiful, even thought it hurts.

4. Fall food. Various squashes, roasted vegetables, soup, and this Autumn Couscous from the Whole Foods deli that I can’t stop eating.

5. My HappyLight. I’m not sure what I’d do without it this time of year. I sit in front of it every morning as I write, and it takes the edge off the dark.

Bonus joy: coffee with a new friend, two new workshops scheduled, TV (even though I maybe watch too much), Big Magic and Justine’s read-a-long, fall color, a good rain jacket and umbrella, the bathroom remodel kick off (*gulp*, they are coming to demo on Monday morning!), the ability to choose even when I don’t make the best choices, America’s Test Kitchen and all the recipes from them that have made my mouth and belly so happy.