1. Morning walks. It was so nice being back on our regular schedule again. One morning was this glorious sunrise and the moon, and another there was thick fog, which is super unusual here. I was happy that even though I’d been doing so much less for the past month, I was mostly back at all of it this week without too much trouble, although I did sleep in yesterday and let Eric walk with Ringo instead of me. I’m so glad that Ringo is doing so much better with his arthritis and whatever overuse or injury he was working with last year. This morning, he and Eric ran 5.7 miles!

2. Training with Shelby and the gang. Again, I was so happy that after so much rest I still seemed to have retained most of the strength I’d gained. It was good to see everyone again, to sweat and laugh with them. 

3. Clean sheets. I was thinking this morning as I did laundry and put fresh sheets on the bed how essential it is to do so regularly, considering how much time I spend in bed and how critical bedding is for me — clean sheets, down pillows and blankets. It does a lot more for my mental health (and thus my physical health) than one might think.

4. Practicing in community. Laurie, our Wild Writing teacher, is on a sabbatical from teaching this session so the small group I write with on Friday mornings decided to run our own sessions, take turns bringing poems and leading. We met for the first time this week and it was so nice to write together, to see and share with each other. I also had a Zoom art date with Janice and finished something I started last week while making art with Mikalina. I’m also really enjoying practicing yoga with some of my favorite teachers again and meditating with Joel and his community from @asoulcalledjoel during his 30 Day Meditation Challenge.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. Eric is back at work but has a three day weekend before he has to go back in earnest. I like having him home, even when we are in different parts of the house doing our own thing, which reminds me how lucky I feel to have married an introvert like me.

Bonus joy: oatmeal with apple compote, reading in the morning, writing in front of my HappyLight with a hot cup of tea, appliances and electricity/gas to run them, spiders, birds in the feeder, the call of owls in the dark of early morning, other people’s dogs (especially when our neighbor walks his four dogs down the block to the big field at the end of our street early in the morning, and in particular when the oldest, a cattle dog, goes with them), lemonade, oranges, maple syrup, a warm shower, a big glass of cold water, the hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, that even though the trails are muddy when we walk in the morning it’s cold enough that it’s frozen so not so messy or unwalkable, my dear friend finally testing negative for COVID (and that her husband and baby never got it), dark chocolate covered almonds, watching Antiques Roadshow and Tiny House Hunters with Eric, making each other laugh, hugs, indoor plumbing, the internet, being able to take care of so many tasks through email or using an app, grocery stores and pharmacies, vaccines and masks, snow plows, prescription glasses, twinkle lights, my moon lamp, my weighted blanket, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Sunrise. Next week Eric will go back to work and we’ll get back on our shared walking schedule so I’ll get to be out taking pictures of our morning walk again and I’m so excited about it, also apologizing to Ringo in advance if it takes a bit for me to get my stamina back after such a long break.

2. Flowers. After a few doctor’s appointments this week, I stopped at Trader Joe’s on my way home. They always have such an interesting variety of flowers. These are Love in the Mist (Nigella Damascena, also apparently sometimes called Devil in the Bush), which even though I bought them separate from the Ranunculus it turns out they are both from the Ranunculaceae family of flowers, cousins.

3. Good news from my doctor and surgeon. The CT scan I got last week showed my abscess has cleared up. Next step is a colonoscopy in four weeks to get a closer look and determine if I need surgery. My primary doctor is being super helpful getting my insurance claim sorted out, as they somehow missed the whole part about the abscess and decided my hospital stay “wasn’t medically necessary.”

4. New pajamas. I love them, they are so nice and comfy, and when Eric saw them, he said, “you look like you’re in prison.” I mean, he’s not wrong… 🙂 My brother said, in response to the text I sent with the picture at 3 pm, “you are still in your pajamas?!” and I had to explain that I live in my pjs, that after I take a shower I put a clean pair on. The older I get, the more I prioritize comfort.

5. My tiny family, tiny home, tiny life. As happy as I’ll be to get back to the morning walk, I’ve love having Eric home more often. Right now, he and Ringo are on the couch napping and it makes me so happy.

Bonus joy: making art with Mikalina, texting with Chloe’, laughing with Eric (for example, we were watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow last night and the appraiser had a uniquely shaped head and haircut so Eric started to do a Frankenstein voice version of the appraisal that had us both laughing so hard), yoga with Sarada and Abrona and Jamie (especially Sarada’s New Year’s day mandala flow), texting my mom and brother, cleaning up my office a bit, stretching, oranges, oatmeal with apple compote, sweet potatoes, reading in the morning after I write, writing with a cup of hot tea, meditation, the hydromassage chair, the pool, the sauna, clean sheets, all the laundry done and put away, being able to do so many necessary things through email or text or using an app, Insight Timer, Prisma, Instagram, Google and the magic of the internet, watching good TV (and sometimes trash TV), listening to podcasts, a warm shower, breakfast burritos, raspberries, birds in the feeder, other people’s dogs and cats and kids, being able to help, dog rescue and the people who do that good work, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.