Fall | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Fall weather, cool but sunny, my favorite.

2. KIND bars, especially cranberry & almond, and dark chocolate nuts & sea salt.

3. Schlumbergera, more commonly known as Christmas Cactus, but mine bloom closer to Thanksgiving, and right now the two in my office are covered in blooms that are about to burst, ready to pop.

4. Cooking dinner. I don’t do it that often. I used to do it all the time when Eric and I were first married, but then when I went to graduate school he took over, and he liked it whereas for me it was a chore so he kept doing it, but lately I’ve been trying some new things, some that have worked out and others not so much, and it feels good.

5. Reconnecting with a friend. At a certain point when you haven’t talked or seen each other in a long time, you start to think, “are we fighting? did we break up?” but then yesterday, I forwarded an email that I thought might be of interest, and finally, finally just said it, “how are you? I miss you. are we okay?” and found out that she felt the same way, was also wondering what had happened.

Bonus Joy: Hugging Eric in the kitchen first thing in the morning when neither one of us is really awake yet, when Sam has already eaten breakfast and is back in bed.

1. First snow of the season. Although, it did make me a little sad, reminding me as it did of how much Dexter loved playing in the snow. His favorite game was “oh no, where’s my toy?!” where he would bury a toy, then pretend he’d lost it, and then dig it out and celebrate finding it. That dog was so full of joy.

2. The golden, shifting season of Fall, which may have been cut short, interrupted by the snow — we went directly from our first freeze (and thus, the end of our garden, *sob*), from picking the last tomatoes and first orange pumpkins, to the first snow only a few days later.

3. The final bloom of the season. She is sitting on my writing desk this morning, open and full after being a closed bud only yesterday. I’m so glad I brought her in, otherwise she would have frozen in that tight moment just before bloom, and she has such a sweet face, the golden bridge between summer and fall/winter.

4. Grapefruit Juice, and Sweet Potato & Black Bean Quesadillas.

5. Being cold, sweaters and socks and down jackets and hats. Although I love a garden, the bees and the blooms and the fruit, and prefer being barefoot, I am otherwise not a girl of summer.