1. Morning walks. It has been over 100 degrees for the past few days and in the upper 90s the ones before that, so getting out to walk in the early morning before it gets too hot has been extra nice.
2. Good healthcare. This is born out of big disappointment in how awful healthcare is where my other family live. People have to wait way too long for just about everything, mistakes get made, some necessary things aren’t considered or offered or even available, and more suffering is generated where there’s already too much. It’s so disheartening that my dog has better access to care than most of my human family does. That said, it makes me even more grateful for the access, opportunity, and support I have. Also, in related news, I’m seeing an acupuncturist next week to hopefully get some measure of relief from my hot flashes, which I told my primary care doctor should be called “hot splashes” because I sweat SO much when they happen.
3. Air conditioning. I know there are still a lot of people who resist it or think it’s bad, who even feel somehow morally superior because they don’t have or use it, but with global warming and climate change, it’s becoming as essential as having a heating source or refrigeration for our food, and I’m so glad we have it in these long summers where 95+ is just a normal day. I’m also grateful for power grids that can support and sustain our choice to use it, and the whole house fan and inside blackout curtains and outside bamboo shades that help us not need to use it so much.
4. Rest. The past few weeks have been tough and I realize that things won’t get any easier any time soon because “life is always life-ing,” so I’m so glad that I can rest when I need to — which is a lot, and that I have a safe, quiet, cool, comfortable place to do so.
5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Having the company and comfort, making each other laugh, loving and being loved, hugs in the kitchen, cuddles on the couch, sharing food, the way Ringo smells, the weight of Eric in bed next to me.
Bonus joy: a visit with Chloe’, plantain chips and dip (I have a problem…), herons, other people’s dogs, fans, listening to podcasts, documentaries, fiction, grapefruit Bubly water, being able to make appointments online or using an app (i.e. not having to call), the pictures Chelsey sent, texting with Chris, sharing reels and memes with Carrie and Kari and Shellie, everything my brother does for my mom, my niece’s ability to mother both her own kids and her grandma so well when she didn’t get that from her own mother, the sticker H. gave me that I’m going to put on my next notebook, texting with Eric, taking care of each other, making each other laugh, hugs — you know the kind where you really mean it?, watching TV, listening to music, meditating, the pool, the hydromassage chair, training with Shelby and the gang, sitting in the sauna (where I never complain that it’s too hot), how Eric likes to sit in a lawn chair in the backyard even when it’s hot out, how excited Ringo got seeing a cat this morning, how he always checks for racoons in the canal up the road from us and insists on turning to walk down that one street because he knows the woman who lives there puts treats out for dogs, the tiny barn sparrows by the bridge this morning, the Merlin app I use to identify birds by their song (it’s seriously so cool), dog adoption, animal rescue, the way the river smells mixed with the dry grass, all the things that are in bloom, how quiet it is early in the morning, seeing the sun rise, the honey locust that is still there even though for years Barb threatened to take it down, the blooms on our golden raintrees and how much the bees love them, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 