1. Morning walks. It’s officially the dark season, even though the upcoming Daylight Savings Time will shift things again for a few weeks. The most recent walk Ringo and I took, it wasn’t getting light until we turned towards home. I was thinking the other morning how cool it is that we can walk out our front door and so quickly get to the river, to the place all the animals are — owls, deer, heron, foxes, beavers, mink, geese, ducks, osprey, all kinds of hawks, bald eagles, raccoons, rabbits, the occasional bear, and this year there was even a moose. We’ve never seen a mountain lion, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t seen us.

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2. Firefighters. We’ve sure needed them this summer, more and yet the same as we always have. The Cameron Peak Fire that’s burning here is now officially the biggest wild fire we’ve ever had in Colorado. May all the people fighting it stay safe, along with the homes and animals and humans that live in those spaces, and may the weather conditions shift in a helpful way.

3. Practice, in particular Wild Writing. Things feel very tense, fraught, so anything that helps me work with that makes me so grateful.

4. Good food. Keeping myself nourished, fed and cared for, helps. Eric made scones this week and my Auntie T sent me some homemade jam. And seriously, Beyond Burger is so much better that “real” hamburger, especially if you cook it on a grill.

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5. My tiny family. It’s pretty certain we won’t be getting another dog until spring at the earliest, and that’s only if we can’t go to Oregon next summer. If we go to Oregon, we’ll wait until after we get back. We don’t know if it will be an older dog or a puppy, girl or a boy, but the two most important things are Ringo has to love it and it has to like to cuddle with me. Ringo rescued another baby this week, a stuffed bunny that he found at City Park. It’s one of my favorite things he does, how happy he gets when he finds a toy or a baby on a walk, and I’m so glad that he’s trustworthy enough now he can actually have stuffed toys just lying around the house, waiting for him to play.

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Bonus joy: the way the squirrels sneak up on the porch to eat our pumpkins when they think I can’t see them, the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, hanging out and writing with Mikalina, eye drops, having the laundry done, homemade biscuits, crunchy peanut butter Clif bars, texting with my mom and brother, a new baby, onion buns, being retired, the way the leaves fall, clean air and water, the people growing and harvesting food now that my garden is done for the year, knowing Chloe’ is just a few blocks away, being so close to the river, how green our yard stayed this year, the willingness of so many to keep showing up and trying even when it gets hard and would be easier to just give up or go away, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.

1. Morning walks. Each day, the darkness lasts for a few more minutes than the day before. This week we saw deer, a beaver, a heron, and something coming towards us in the dark — two glowing eyes, about the height of a fox, cat, or even a coyote, coming fast until we stopped and I yelled and it turned off the path. This is the time of year we need to be really careful because there are bears, and with the wild fires, there have also been moose and cougars, not anything you want to run into in the dark, if at all. As much as I hate not having Sam, I am enjoying walking just one dog, which is so much easier.

2. Wild Writing with Laurie. We started a new season this morning. Some of my favorite people in the whole world were there. I still shake my head and smile when I think how ridiculous I was, thinking I could do without this practice, this teacher, these people.3. Practice. I can say with certainty that without it, I wouldn’t still be here. The foundation I cultivated over the past 12 years; in particular the trio of meditation, yoga asana, and writing; has saved me, again and again.4. Good food. One of my favorite things since retiring, and in particular during the lockdown of the pandemic, is cooking and eating good food. This week I made what’s most likely the last of this season’s pickles, because we probably won’t be getting many more cucumbers, and peanut butter cookies, (if you have a good recipe for chewy peanut butter cookies, post the link in the comments or send me an email). I braved meeting a friend for tacos at a place with a big open outdoor area this week, only the third time I’ve eaten food someone outside our house made and the first time I stayed and ate on site, and while I loved seeing her and the tacos were so good, it still felt so weird and risky.5. My tiny family. Eric left me kitchen counter love notes in two locations this week — one where I see it when I come out to get my phone, and a second bonus one with the coffee to surprise me later in the morning when I made a cup. Ringo got a new toy, a possum, and he loves it. It’s so weird how both Obi and Sam could have cared less about toys, but both Dexter and Ringo fell so in love with each new stuffed, squeaky baby. It’s both the sweetest and saddest thing ever how he keeps curling up on Sam’s couch. One of my favorite things to do with Ringo to remember Sam is to “sing,” which Sam did but wasn’t very good at and Ringo loves so much. Bonus joy: getting to see Mikalina THREE times this week, seeing Carrie in person, Chloe’ being back from her travels so I could finally give her the birthday present I bought her (and she loved it, just like I knew she would), texting with my mom and brother, Friday which weirdly still has that same end of the week feel even though I’m retired, fall because it’s my favorite season, black walnut ice cream, getting in the pool, sitting in the infrared sauna with Eric, grocery pick-up, finally deciding what to do with our third car that we don’t need anymore (we are donating it to Eric’s school so the students in the auto repair program can use it to learn stuff, to practice on — my dad’s a mechanic, so this makes me extra happy), falling golden leaves, long naps, reading in bed at night while Ringo and Eric sleep.