1. We made our reservations for the beach next summer. Six weeks. I feel so grateful that we can pay for such a thing, that we can take the dogs with us, that we have such a good and trustworthy friend who comes and lives in our house while we are gone, that because he’s here we can be go away for that long but still have a garden when we come back.

2. Good food. Fresh pesto made with basil from our garden, a berry pie Eric made, a yummy salad I made with the purple carrots I like so much, and homemade bran muffins with fruit for breakfast. I’m also on my way later to Garden Sweet (our local small farm that keeps a little stand out front) because the rumor is they have Palisade peaches.

3. Our front garden. Mostly this week, as it turns into a food and flower bearing jungle, I’m grateful that we live somewhere that such a thing isn’t just allowed but appreciated. A guy came over the other day to give us a bid on finally refinishing our hardwood floors, and as he was leaving he told Eric, “just let me know when I can come back and pick those tomatoes.”

4. My dogs. As much as I miss Obi and Dexter, want them back, and call Sam and Ringo by their names sometimes because I think of them so much, I’m happy to have these two boys.

5. Play dates. They are good for the dogs and for me. We have really good friends.

Ringo and Pancho, who played so hard they also lounged.

Bonus joy: being offered a regular yoga class (Tuesdays at 7 am at Om Ananda starting fall season), teaching yoga to some of my favorite students, signing up for Andrea’s Superhero E-Course Bootcamp (my hope is to come up with a course to offer in the fall or at the start of the new year), really good TV (Moone Boy, Miranda, Hjørdis, Rita, and the documentary Tig), podcasts (some of my current favorites are Mortified and You Made it Weird), pie season, how green everything still is in Colorado in July, being able to email my doctor instead of pay for an office visit, a new roof getting put on Monday, sleep.

1. My two homes. Oregon and Colorado, the way they rhyme, the way my heart can’t choose between them.

2. Visiting family and a few friends. It’s never enough time and I’m always sad to leave, but I’m also glad to be home in Colorado again.

3. Marionberry pie. My mom made me one, and at the 4th of July picnic at my aunt’s house, there were three different kinds — and yes, I tried all three.

4. The beach. I only got to spend part of a day there while I was in Oregon, and it was simultaneously wonderful and heartbreaking.

5. My tiny family. Oh how I miss them when I’m away.

Practicing “leave it.” Sometimes Sam looks like a giant compared to Ringo.

6. Our garden. I was only gone a week, but it went crazy, so tall and green. We are now getting a few tomatoes and zucchini and the first sunflower bloomed.

Bonus joy: good food, watching movies with my mom, walks and dinners with my mom and dad, my dad’s not cat (he doesn’t have a cat, but he does), seeing my nieces and my brother, aunts and uncles and cousins, a big family dinner, thrift store shopping, a rental car with Colorado plates, a safe trip there and back, a little girl on my flight home whose name is also Jill, being able to be away from home but still take care of myself, bran muffins, fruit, my first tomato of the season, sleeping in my own bed, clean sheets, a smart phone, soaking in the tub, podcasts, stretching, how you can search your situation on the internet and find stories of how other people have worked with it, going home and being home, being lucky enough to have two homes.