Gratitude Friday

1. Signs of spring. It is warming up here, even as there’s still some snow on the ground. I am looking forward to our garden and to getting vaccinated and to maybe, just maybe, making some travel plans…finally.

2. Finally getting some stuff in the mail. I’ve been trying to stay away from the line at the post office, so I had a bunch of stuff that had piled up, needed to be sent, and I finally did it last week. Since most of it was sending good things to good people, it was especially nice. It felt like a big accomplishment.

3. Practice. I am starting an online writing class this weekend with Natalie Goldberg, who I consider my first writing teacher, and I’m really looking forward to it, in particular experiencing her perspective on writing as practice from close up.

4. Comfort. I’ve been craving cake so I made a vanilla buttermilk snack cake with buttercream frosting (the kind with cream cheese AND butter). I made too much frosting, so I’m going to “have to” make a chocolate cake this weekend. I told Eric I’m feeling like a much more confident cook lately, in particular because even if we don’t have something I need, I can figure out a substitute, like last night when I was making honey cornbread and didn’t have any whole milk but I did have yogurt. Even when I try something and it doesn’t work out exactly how I wanted, the mistakes are usually delicious.

5. Morning walks. I miss Sam like crazy, but walking just one dog is SO much easier, even if he is the one who delights in eating stuff he shouldn’t, like various kinds of poop and old food and sticks.

6. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. I am so lucky to have such a soft, safe place to land.

Bonus joy: getting a tax refund (for at least 20 years, Eric and I owed, so these last few years of getting money back has been nice), new sheets, getting in the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, warmer weather, sunshine, things starting to bloom, meeting a new neighbor, a new baby on its way, the weekend (which still means something even though I’m not working), friends getting new puppies and posting lots of pictures and videos of them, clementines, snack size cucumbers, gummy vitamins, naps, clean sheets, down pillows and blankets, having a washer and dryer at home so I don’t have to drag things to the laundry mat or hoard quarters, so many good books, podcasts, a big glass of cold clean water, birds in the feeder, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Morning walks. I’m realizing that walks with Ringo may just be the only thing that has stayed the same (minus Sam), even with a global pandemic, climate crisis, downfall of civilization. Amidst all the nonsense and chaos, here at the end of the world, in the middle of nowhere, there’s still the dog and the walk and the river.

2. Practice, alone and together. It sustains me, supports me, saves me. On a practical level, it gives me something to do, every single day, is constant and consistent, something I know and can trust.

3. Vaccines. In particular for the one for COVID-19, and that people I love and those who have worked so hard to care for the rest of us through this will be protected, as much as they can be.

4. Comfort. Blooms inside, art card mail, tiny marshmallows in my coffee in my favorite mug, kitchen counter love notes — all proof that people love me, that I’m not alone.

5. My tiny family, my tiny house, my tiny life. They are my favorite.

Bonus joy: naps, cookies, clementines, drive through pharmacy, pay day, laundry, clean sheets, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, down blankets and pillows, snow, birds at the feeder and singing in the nearby trees, deer tracks in the fresh snow (I don’t know why but it makes me ridiculously happy that they are out there in the dark just walking down the sidewalk), sleepy Ringo, “singing” with Ringo, Parkour Ringo, the pool, sitting in the sauna with Eric, my masseuse Dana, snow shovels, the four dogs that live across the street, texting with my mom and brother and Chloe’, writing and hanging out with Mikalina, Wild Writing and my Friday morning writing sangha, comedy shows, streaming online yoga classes, having all the props so I can take a restorative class with one of my favorite teachers online from home.