1. Morning walks. It’s the perfect blend of the sacred and the mundane.  This weeks was extra special because Ringo is feeling so much better. Which leads to…

1.a. Ringo’s physical therapy team and pain meds. Teri and Dr. Lindsey Fry and the whole team at Red Sage are just the best. Lindsey said he’s getting so used to acupuncture, she doesn’t even have to give him treats, he just lays down and closes his eyes, leans into her and trusts her to do whatever she’s gonna do. And Teri just might be his favorite person in the world.

2. Practice. I was talking to a friend yesterday about drug addiction, and we talked about how our practice is maybe the most important thing that kept us from going all the way down that road. Yes, we suffered and struggled, but we also had methods for working with trauma, strong emotions, and difficult situations.

3. Rest. Naps. My bed or that side of the couch. This particular picture of our bed makes me smile because it’s such a scarily accurate comparison of how Eric and I exist in the world, the state of our minds, the quality of our experience. You can probably guess which side is mine.

4. My friend Leslee. She passed away this week. It was unexpected, shocking, and sudden. I didn’t get to say good-bye. She was the smartest, sweetest, most creative, silly person — I mean, just LOOK AT HER. I’m thankful that she died at home, in her sleep, but I’m so so so sad that she’s gone. The world lost a bit of its magic and I am going to miss her so much. I still can’t quite believe I won’t ever see her again.

5. Good neighbors. I found out yesterday that our next door neighbors of the past 13 years are putting their house on the market and moving to Ohio to be closer to family. It makes me so sad, but also so grateful to have had them there for all these years. I sure hope the next set of people are just as good, and that they like dogs.

5. My tiny family, my tiny life, my tiny home. I say it every single week and maybe you are tired of hearing it, but they and this are exactly everything I ever wanted.

Bonus joy: cooking (I just made these refried beans and they are so good!), getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna, the hydromassage chair, Wild Writing, texting with Chloe’ and Chris and Mom, sharing cute pictures and memes, good books, canceled plans, Zoom, writing, listening to podcasts, bran muffins, raspberries, a big glass of clean cold water, a warm shower, down and wool, therapy, KN95 masks, vaccines, gummy supplements, cleans sheets, that corner of the couch, watching TV with Eric, making each other laugh, dog fur, toast, a crunchy gala apple, caramel, pinto beans, snow, trees, snow tires, ice scrapers, heaters, birds at the feeder, squirrels eating out of our compost pile, white twinkle lights, my infrared heating pad, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Snow. We got another ten inches this week. That along with extra cold negative temperatures inspired a midweek snow day for Eric — yay! I had made a funeral casserole the night before because I knew the cold and snow were coming, that something warm and delicious would be just the ticket. Eric stuck our Christmas tree in the snow burm of our side flower bed and the first morning I walked out and saw it there, I thought someone had planted a tree, like some sort of weird prank.

2. Working on my book. I haven’t said too much about it recently because a lot of other stuff came up and I sort of lost my way with it. I still write every day, no matter what, but I was in the weeds with the book project. It’s like making a collage, pulling pieces together not really knowing how it will all come together, where it will land. I’ve written so many pieces of it already and stored it away — on this blog, in files on multiple computers, in writing I’ve done with Laurie Wagner and my Friday morning writing sangha, and in the many many notebooks I’ve filled, even some of the recent conversations I’ve had with my therapist have led directly to writing. It can feel overwhelming and super confusing how to put it all together. This week I’ve been more actively working on it and it feels really really good.

3. Cooking, in particular trying something new. Eric and I have a favorite restaurant, Mount Everest Cafe, run by a Tibetan family. Their food is SO good. Eric and I made a few curry recipes this week to see if we could replicate some of our favorites. My eggplant curry turned out pretty good (not as good as Mount Everest) and Eric’s was weirdly bland for all the spices in it. It wasn’t a total fail, but we are ordering take out from Mount Everest this weekend to cleanse our palates.

4. Ringo being a jerk. Weird thing to be grateful for, yes? And yet, this past week he wasn’t feeling great, his arthritis was acting up and causing his front legs especially to ache. The way I knew it was beyond what he normally lives with is when things he always does that are super annoying — digging up the couch, humping the pillows, wanting to play, nudging me in the butt or nipping at my clothes to get me to pay attention, getting on our bed when I’m getting dressed for a walk to bark and sing and dig — weren’t happening. His physical therapy vet had some good ideas for how to help him and he’s feeling so much better … and being a total jerk. (Only the first of these pictures is from this week, the rest are simply examples of said behavior).

5. Morning walks. The one we took the day before the storm came supports my theory that the prettiest skies happen as a storm is rolling in.

6. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. How many times or ways can I say they and this are everything I ever wanted?

Bonus joy: Vaccines and pain meds and gummy supplements, snow tires and plows and shovels, ice scrapers, down and wool, a crunchy gala apple, apple pie filling as an oatmeal topper, dark chocolate covered caramel, house plants, sunshine, a big glass of cold water, a warm shower, clean sheets, pay day, the hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, the sound of our furnace, birds in the feeder, texting with Chloe’ and Mom and Chris, naps, good TV, listening to podcasts, finishing a book, starting another books, good music, that tiny little computer we call a smartphone that I can easily carry with me and use to access just about anything I need, a new dog treat pouch (I felt bad for needing another one until I realized it was at least six years old), blank notebooks and good pens, drinking a hot cup of coffee in front of my HappyLight while I write in the morning, raspberries, reading on my Kindle at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.