1. Morning walks. Since Eric is on summer break, we’ve been doing these together, all three of us, which has been really nice. One of my favorite things is that he always spots things I wouldn’t see if I were walking on my own — like the deer lying in the grass this morning or the mama duck and her four babies swimming in McMurry Pond the other day. We’ll be leaving next week for Oregon, and we’ve been talking about all the good places we’ve found along our route over the years to walk dogs. We make the same comment about them all the time as we walk them, “if we lived here, we’d walk here all the time.” This morning, as we were walking around the ponds just north of our house where we’ve lived for 25 years now, Eric joked, “if we lived here, we’d walk here all the time.”

2. Peony season! This is one of my favorite times of year. My first peony bud opened on Sunday, which just so happened to be my dear friend Chelsey’s birthday, and they’ve been slowly popping ever since. So many blooms! I want to add one of the coral varieties and something yellow and a Claire de Lune to my garden. Did you know peonies can live for over 100 years? One of my favorite Mary Oliver poems is Peonies.

3. Practice. Yoga with Red Sage and writing with my Friday morning sangha — oh how I will miss them when I’m away! I might try to show up on some Friday morning to write, but I never know what the internet connection is going to be like on the coast. I’m looking forward to mediating when we get there, with the view out the back window to rest my eyes on.

4. Ringo’s care team. He seems to be on track to heal up the “booboo” on his elbow. We got him some sleeves to help protect it as it heals and even though he doesn’t really like them he is SO cute in them. And yet, he does wear them, and that’s another thing to be grateful for, how good Ringo is about getting shots and taking pills and getting acupuncture, etc. I tried while we were waiting to build a pair of elbow protector pads myself using some fabric tape, a toddler sock, some cotton batting, and his harness, but it was a failure, kept slipping down. Even though I’d prefer it if he had not a single thing wrong right now (or ever), I am so grateful to all the people who support us in keeping his belly and joints happy, and his elbows protected.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m looking forward to our time away at the beach, but I’m just as happy here — anywhere with them.

Bonus joy: getting in the pool, getting to visit with Sally and Janice while we hop around during aqua aerobics class, sitting in the sauna, the hydromassage bed, good books, good TV and films (sometimes even the ones that aren’t very good, because for example sometimes you need a cheesy romcom with a totally impossible happy ending), listening to music while I drive around with the windows rolled down, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, listening to podcasts, starting a new podcast or TV series I know is going to be good, practicing with Sarah Blondin, potato chips, ice cream, onion poppy seed buns, stretching, my white Siberian irises getting ready to bloom, strawberries, using my dad’s beer steins for flower vases, potting two new spider babies from plants that originally came from Eric’s mom, a big glass of cold clean water, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep, these sweet pictures of my dad who has been gone for 2.5 years.

P.S. Kind and gentle reader, my blog is going on vacation just like me, and that means most likely there won’t be a new Gratitude post until the first part of July. In the meantime, may you be safe, happy, healthy, and at ease. 💛

1. Morning walks. This week we had three different seasons of weather: warm & dry, cooler & rainy with sun breaking through, and big wet snow.

2. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! She seems to be settling in okay at her new place, is happy watching her movies and having visitors and the view out her window, although there’s a rumor that she thinks the food is “terrible.” It’s hard to know how seriously to take that, considering the last few times I cooked for her when she was still at home, she didn’t like what I made even though they were things she’d liked in the past, and even if you ask her exactly what she wants to eat, it’s sometimes hard for her to tell you or even know. It wouldn’t surprise me if both the cooking and the care weren’t up to Tokarski Home standards, but they are a model that make it hard for most places to compare, to come even close. And if it turns out she’s not happy there, we have other options. I’ll have a better sense when I can see for myself next month and when she’s been there a bit longer.

Chris has been busy working on getting her house ready to sell — plumbing projects, painting inside and out, replacing hardware, choosing new flooring, and keeping the lawn watered and mowed. It’s looking really good, and I’ll be glad when we can stage and list it so he can be done with all the extra work and responsibility.

3. Practice. I told my yoga students this week that sometimes when we feel the most ick, the least likely to want to do yoga, that’s usually when we really need it, and after practicing for close to 20 years, I’ve learned that on the days I “just don’t wanna,” if I do, I always feel better for it. Writing with my Friday morning sangha was magic, medicine. And I’ve been doing a short course with Sarah Blondin on my Insight Meditation app called “This Deepest Self” (she offers it on her website too) as part of my practice and it’s been really good.

4. Ringo’s care team. I’m so grateful for the loving, wise care they offer my aging dog, and just as thankful to the support and compassion they offer me, his prone to health anxiety human.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I’m continuing to replace furniture, clean and organize and purge. There’s also similar effort to be made in the garden before we go. Eric is almost on summer break and we both are looking forward to our time together next month at the coast and after when we get back home.

Bonus joy: a massage, a haircut, pizza for dinner, book club, getting in the pool and the sauna, clean sheets, sitting in the backyard with Ringo and Eric, planning to get more plants when we get back from Oregon and having a new space for them with good light (the new bookshelf pictured above), texting with Chris and Chloe’, writing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee and warm mug of green tea, good books, good TV and movies, listening to podcasts, Noah Kahan’s new album, wool Haflinger slippers, down blankets and pillows, a warm shower, how fast Ringo settled into acupuncture with Bronwen, how many buds there are on my peonies and how fast they bounced back after getting buried in the snow, our neighbors moving so we won’t have to look at their MAGA flags anymore, Mary’s Mountain Cookies, seeing my primary care practitioner, my A1C and blood pressure and cholesterol numbers all continuing to improve, finding the right sized box for something I need to mail, good boxes, oranges, limes, potatoes, clean water, the extra moisture in the weather, sunshine, Sunday morning Pilates, sleeping in, our new futon mattress (not sure when it stops being “new”), naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.