1. Yoga. I taught a new class this morning and it went well. Two gorgeous curvy women showed up, I had a new cd that I really like, and I wore a mala my dear friend made me for good luck. More and more I see how yoga has been essential to my ability to practice self-compassion, to my efforts to heal and get stronger, to be sane. Through teaching, I can see directly how much I’ve changed, transformed.

2. My new favorite tshirt from Curvy Yoga in Nashville. I love the work that Anna does — she’s one of the reasons I became a yoga teacher, knew I had the right, belonged. I think I’m going to demand that from now on all of my clothes are this soft, this comfortable.

3. Decluttering, simplifying. In order to make room for this new wardrobe of soft, comfortable, beautiful clothes that I’m certain are coming my way, I got rid of an entire trunkload of stuff. It felt so good. Bathroom drawers and kitchen cabinets and bookshelves are next.

4. Kelly’s Giant Ginger Cookies. I’d been wanting to make these for a long time and finally had the desire, ingredients, and time all in the same place. Susan’s blog has some amazing recipes, and I love her stories of my friend and her daughter, Kelly. I told Susan after I made the cookies that I was wishing we could all sit down over a cup of tea and enjoy them — heck, I’d eat a bowl of dirt to get to sit and chat with Kelly again, make her laugh with my dumb dog stories.

5. Danielle Ate the Sandwich’s new album, The Drawing Back of the Curtains. I’ve been listening to it non-stop since she released it.

Bonus joy: my three boys, watching old episodes of Friends on Netflix and laughing with Eric, Gumpkies (cabbage rolls), the good chocolate, beautiful malas, good music, sleep, a new season of Downton Abbey.

Image by Eric

1. The particular light of the sky in winter. Sunrise, sunset, the moon, midday, dusk — so many colors.

2. Vacation. I decided I needed another week, even if it might mean working extra later to make up for it.

3. Clementines (I can’t stop eating them), kale salad, chocolate chip cookies, honey smoked salmon, asiago bagels, Good Earth sweet & spicy tea, peppermint tea.

4. Ringo and Sam, the sweet spot. As happens when you hike — you work really hard, hike far, and at some point there’s this place that you finally get to that’s some sort of magic, I call it the sweet spot — there’s a place you get to with dogs when they are grown up enough but still young enough and healthy. I am enjoying it now because I know from experience how brief it can be, even if it’s years.

Image by Eric

5. The confidence to try new things. I haven’t always had it, as an introvert and HSP was just too anxious and timid, but I’m experiencing a funny extroversion right now, specifically in how I move my body. Training myself, teaching yoga, running again, trying new classes, applying for new opportunities.

Bonus Joy: Netflix (and smart friends with good taste who recommend more good stuff than I could ever watch), a morning walk with my boys, snow tires, wool socks, good gloves, ice scrapers, the way Ringo makes us laugh, how sweet and easy Sam is, hugging Eric for a full 20 seconds (I heard that is how long it takes to trigger some good biological something that I can’t remember the name of right now), drinking tea in the late afternoon, yoga, sweet friends sending me mail, reading.