All the courage you need can be found in the muscle known as the heart. ~The Wild Unknown Tarot Deck, Strength

1. Teaching yoga. I taught my second “real” class this morning. I don’t get nearly as nervous as I used to get when I first started teaching writing at CSU. The difference tells me a lot about how I’ve changed. I’m more comfortable in my body and with who I am and what I know, more confident in the way Susan Piver defines it, “the willingness to be as ridiculous, luminous, intelligent, and kind as you really are, without embarrassment.”

2. Good friends, who make me feel safe and comfortable, who encourage and inspire me, but challenge me too. And who, most importantly, make me laugh.

3. Puppies, sweet tiny cute little bundles of fur and teeth that aren’t my responsibility.

4. Practicing yoga on my back patio, under the blue sky, surrounded by trees and the sound of recess at the elementary school just around the corner, with Ringo and Sam “helping.”

5. Fall in Colorado, crisp and clear and oh so pretty.

image by Eric

Bonus Joy: A new season of TV that makes me laugh, (The Mindy Project, Modern Family, and New Girl).

1. Fall in Colorado. So pretty, cool and sunny, quiet and calm.

2. New slippers. I waited two years to get new ones, and now I understand why — they are perfect.

3. Really good friends. Seriously, I was just as happy to see them last night as I was to see Cheryl Strayed. These women are smart and interesting and funny. They make me feel safe, make me laugh, encourage and inspire me.

4. Cheryl Strayed! I met her last night, and she’s every bit as genuine and funny in person.

5.  Ringo Blue is ten months old today. I am way stupid in love with this dog.

Bonus joy: my tender little heart, laughing, opportunities to teach more yoga, a soft place to land, apple season, heart shaped rocks from heart shaped friends, the most beautiful and delicate silver necklace that reminds me of my path, books and writers and readers, the way sweet Sam licks my face when he finds me crying, breakfast burritos from La Luz, the last of the watermelon, the good kind of chocolate, new music, how quiet my new office is, new sheets that are the same as the ones on the house at the beach, the weekend.