1. Fall weather. I’ve actually been cold a couple of times in the past few days. Even though I’m going to miss our garden, I’m ready for it.

2. Good food. Rocky Mountain Popcorn Caramel (so good…), roasted corn on the cob, watermelon, the last of the zucchini and tomatoes, bran muffins fresh out of the oven.

3. Practice. Yoga, meditation, writing, and dog. The best way to describe the book I’m working on is most likely “how I went from crazy to sane through practice.” Getting up each morning and stretching, then going to sit on my meditation cushion for 20 minutes, and then sitting at my writing desk to write for another half hour is just the best. And last night I got to go to a new training class with Ringo, Tricks-n-Games, and then came home and cuddled with Sam, which leads to the next thing on my list…

4. Sweet Sam and Ringo Blue.

Tricks-n-Games class

How can such a big dude curl up so tiny?

Sam wouldn’t come out of his crate to play with him, so Ringo went in.

5. Good friends. The kind who celebrate with me, bitch and moan with me, laugh with me, clarify things for me, support me, and hatch big plans with me.

Bonus joy: the pumpkins in our garden, the way the blooms on my clematis look like tiny stars, how Eric loans out our tools to the college kids who live behind us, physical therapy, a finalized bid for our bathroom remodel so we can finally order things and start, really smart and kind people who can clarify my confusion, focusing on just one thing, seeing that what I want is possible, knowing I can if I want to, knowing I don’t have to, Wild Writing class, a hot shower, clean laundry, texting with my brother.

1. Healing. I don’t want to jinx it, but my heel seems to be getting better — with rest, physical therapy, strengthening and stretching exercises, and patience (which was probably the hardest of all), it’s on the mend.

2. The return of kitchen counter love notes. It’s the best thing about going back to work after summer vacation.

3. Our garden. The pumpkins are turning orange, the basil has gone to flower, and even though we only got a few Rocky Mountain Bee Plants this year they are big enough to be feeding many many bees.

4. Good food. Black bean and zucchini pancakes smothered in avocado and tomatoes from our garden, peach pie, glazed lemon zucchini bread, homemade pizza, roasted tomato soup, smoked salmon and cream cheese with spinach on an asiago bagel, corn on the cob, and watermelon.

5. Sweet Sam and Ringo Blue. The morning I took this picture, Eric was hoping to get some work done at home, but the dogs wouldn’t settle down, even though he just took them on a run. They were playing and playing and being rowdy and finally he gave up and went to his office on campus to work. I told him, “you know as soon as you leave, they are going to settle down.” I texted him this picture five minutes after he left.

Bonus joy: the sunflowers in our garden, a good yoga class, Hulu with no commercials, the Your Career Homecoming challenge, giving love and having it find its way back to me, Wild Writing class, more zucchini when I thought it was done producing, figuring out new ways to move, pants that fit and are comfortable, pay day, saying no, knowing what I want, uninterrupted sleep, crock pot meals, an hour working on my book, trusting that I don’t have to know how it’s going to turn out in order to keep going.