Gratitude Friday

1. The wind. Let me explain. Windy is actually one of my least favorite weathers. However, yesterday there was a moment when I was crossing campus and noticed the way the shadows of the bare tree branches danced on the sidewalk and heard the soft whisper of that movement, and I felt so happy, content, and quiet — for a few minutes I was in love with the wind. Then it bit into me with its cold teeth and I was back to wishing it away.

2. Lilies, blooms as big as my head.

3. Walking with sweet Sam. With a new puppy, and the below zero temperatures and snow of late, I had only been getting in a few short afternoon walks with Sam, his dad was getting (having?) to go in the mornings, but this week I got to go on the long morning walk, twice. I love that dog so much, wish he didn’t have to struggle.

4. Ringo, and even his alter ego, Wolverine. Our puppy class trainer the other night reminded us we should never use our dog’s name when we are mad at them or they are getting in trouble, that we want them to only have good associations with their name (helps with recall training). She said she’d gone as far as giving her dog a second name for when she’s getting in trouble. So, I have done the same for Ringo. His second name is Wolverine. And the unintended consequence is that when I remember to use it when I’m mad or he’s being bad (his new trick is chewing on the legs of the dining room table), it totally breaks the tension because I can’t say it without cracking myself up. I laugh instead of killing him. (I wouldn’t actually kill him).

5. Knowing that no matter what I do, things will turn out more or less okay, that I don’t actually have enough power or control to completely ruin anything.

Bonus Joy: A dry backyard. After weeks of being covered in snow, and then melting into a mess of ice and mud, it’s finally usable again. When you have two dogs, one who is only 13 weeks old, it’s kind of a big deal.

image by eric

1. Eric: He gets out more than me lately, takes more pictures. This one has a funny story behind it. When Eric left our house, the sky was the brightest red and he knew it would only last for about 10 minutes, so he ran as fast as he could to the park to try and get a good picture of it, but by the time he and Sam got to the first open field, it had faded to pink. Still a pretty amazing sky, picture if you ask me. Oh, and he also bought me flowers yesterday, not for Valentine’s Day but for being me, for being a good mom to our dogs.

2. Love. Deep and enduring, unshakable. “We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.” ~Robert Fulghum

3. Being a writer. I love it so much. When I’m not writing as much (like recently), the words build up inside of me, my fingers itch and my heart aches, and in my dreams, I’m always writing.

4. My interns at CSU. It’s all the good things about teaching, working with students, without any of the grading or other tedious nonsense.

5. Retirement. I hadn’t had access to my account balance for awhile, set it up to only receive e-documents and then could never figure out how to get into my account. When I finally did, I was so happy to see the amount, so grateful for it.

Bonus Joy: The trainer who stayed after puppy class answering all my questions. All of my dogs have been hard puppies, and a full Blue Heeler is a whole other level of hard. I also seem to have total amnesia when it comes to how this whole puppy thing works, how long it takes for the uber puppy constant attention to be over.

Bonus, Bonus Joy: Sam. How lazy he is in the morning, how content being walked, fed, and loved. How well he’s made this transition, even though he’s not completely well. How he shifted so easily to not being crated when we aren’t home, mostly just hangs out on the couch and sleeps — we know this because we’ve videoed him a few times to be sure. How good he is playing with Ringo, even though we have to limit how much he does.