1. Morning walks. We saw the owl again this week. I heard it barking but couldn’t find it and just when I’d given up, decided to take a picture of the partially dead tree by the river where a cluster of rabbitbrush grows, I saw it sitting on one of the top branches. The moon was full that morning, and even though it was so bright I could have walked without a headlamp, there are skunks some mornings so I lit it up to see any eyes lurking in the grass along the edges of the trail, and because of that I noticed three deer I would have otherwise missed. On a different morning, right after we saw one of our morning trail friends and he’d asked us if we’d seen any bears because we’d told him last week about the three sightings in the area, we saw a pile of bear scat on the trail right by the long low shed where Ringo keeps growling and barking at something.

2. Practice. The yoga class I just started taking again had not one but two subs this week. I love getting to experience a lot of different teaching perspectives, no matter the experience level — I learn as much from someone just starting as I do from a long time teacher. After one class, a woman I know from aqua aerobics who was there taking her first class apologized for watching me so much, “You helped me figure out what I was supposed to be doing.” I didn’t tell her I was also a yoga teacher or that earlier in class I’d wished the teacher had started our flows on the other side so this woman would be able to see me from the beginning because I could tell she was struggling, looking around a lot, and because we started on the left side, I was behind her the first time through each sequence. My yoga class I taught was pretty chaotic this week, with lots of people in and out and even more people and noise in the clinic who weren’t part of our yoga class, but somehow still worked. We had a big group in my Friday morning writing sangha and it was equal parts magic and medicine. I feel so lucky, and so grateful to Laurie for that practice, those people, and the poetry.

3. Poetry. I went from being someone who didn’t “get” poetry to someone who reads poetry every day. Currently I’m reading Where I Dry The Flowers by Ollie Schminkey (one of my current favorite poets, probably because they write a lot about caring for their alcoholic dad as he was dying), and I just ordered three other collections they recommended at the back of their book. When I was reading Ollie’s book yesterday morning, crying over some line, loving it so much, I was thinking about how poetry is currently one of the ways I’m able to keep going, not give up. I have dear friends who are poets, and there were a few poets I loved before I met her, but I have Laurie Wagner, my dear friend and teacher, to thank for bringing me fully under the spell of poetry, for introducing me to the full measure of its magic, its medicine. Thank you, Laurie. I love and miss you. 💜 P.S. She is still around and teaching, just not the Friday morning small class I took with her for 12 years, so I don’t often get to write with her “in person” and I miss that.

4. The gym. I have been going more recently, now that I have more time and energy to take care of myself. There’s always the pool, the hydromassage chair, and the sauna, but I’ve recently started adding some new classes, meeting some new people and reconnecting with some old favorites.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Eric is very busy this semester, mostly by choice. He was telling me the other day that Thursday mornings were the hardest, because he has a long day on Wednesday and is only home for about an hour before he leaves again to go play D&D and then gets home late, and that on Thursday morning, he has to load my yoga stuff and have a kitchen counter love note ready and take out the garbage. I told him to lower the bar, that he doesn’t have to load my yoga stuff and could take a day off from leaving me a note. He said, “yeah but if I don’t you’ll say ‘why don’t you love me anymore?'”, which I would, but just as a joke. Then I suggested he could do a single heart one morning a week instead of a more elaborate design, so the next morning he left me the one with two — and it was every bit as sweet, just as thoughtful, and I felt as loved as I did every day before that. Ringo continues to be my best friend. The other morning I got up and he had been waiting for me on the bed under my writing desk, which he has finally claimed as his own, which makes me so happy.

Bonus joy: Book club (we read The Hail Mary Project and then when we met to talk about it, watched the movie together and ate pizza, popcorn, and ice cream sandwiches), the onset of fall — the cooler temperatures and things starting to turn golden and the light, the surprise of my morning glories and the particular deep purple blue of the blooms, a new laptop (which I’ll need to set up before my next blog post as this one took me forever, my current computer being slow just to remind me why I got a new one), lunch plans with Eric today and Carrie tomorrow, sleeping in, giving myself permission to rest, cooking, getting the laundry done on Saturday morning, payday, clean sheets, a warm shower, making Eric laugh, a hot cup of coffee and warm mug of tea, watching cooking shows (Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals and Dish are my two current favorites, and might be considered “podcasts” rather than “shows” even though they are on video — which is so confusing!), good books, listening to podcasts (different than the ones on video, although some of them are also available on video…why?! What even is a podcast if it’s available as a video?!), watermelon, peaches, green onion, fresh eggs, texting with Chloe’ and Chris, not being on social media much at all if ever (y’all, I feel so much better without it), ceramics, collections of tiny things, rain, air conditioning, down pillows and blankets, stickers, gingerbread (I can tell fall is coming because I’ve been craving it, zucchini bread too), reading my Kindle in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

1. Morning walks. We saw an owl one morning, or rather heard it before we saw it. Because it was squawking rather that hooting, I though at first it was a hawk. We were searching the massive cottonwood where the sound was coming from and finally saw it way up at the top. Eric started to “hoo, hoo, hoo” at it and it barked back a few times. I joined in, and then Ringo made a sound somewhere between a howl and a soft yip, trying to mimic us. It was SO cute, especially considering usually when he sees an owl, he gets mad and barks at it.

2. Practice. Yoga at Red Sage that included one of the staff’s dogs, the sweet Mabel, who reminded me so much of Sam only smaller. Yoga where I wasn’t the teacher, a class at the gym that got taken over by a person who I get massages from sometimes and turns out is also a really good yoga teacher. I missed practicing in person in a class where someone else tells me what to do next. Writing with my Friday morning sangha, almost the whole group this week — people get busy over the summer so it can be hard to have a full set. It also worked out that Chloe’ could “stay after class” and we got to hang out for a bit after.

3. Cooking with Eric. I especially like it when there isn’t really a plan but rather some protein that needs cooked and a few veggies and such that need to get eaten, and we just come up with something. It usually ends up being so yummy.

4. Bears, oh my! There have been a record number of bears in town this year. I LOVE seeing them AND it’s sad because it’s due to the drought, the dry winter and hot summer combining and creating conditions where the bears have to roam further to find enough food. A friend down the road posted pictures of one in his front yard, playing in his sprinkler. There was even one on campus at Colorado State University on move in day. The spot where it was found is right outside the building where I worked for 20 years. Some of those students had just moved to Colorado and a bear on campus was not what they were expecting. Turns out it was a baby that had gotten separated from its mama so it wasn’t much of a threat, but they darted and moved it to keep it safe and to keep mama from coming to look for it.

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Ringo and I are still adjusting to Eric being gone so much more now that he’s back at work fulltime. I sent Eric pictures around midday during one of his longer days, said, “Ringo and I are napping. How’s work?” and he just so happened to see it when he and his colleague where talking about how busy they were going to be this semester and that they didn’t know how most people worked all day long five days a week, so they got a good laugh from my message. I am making sure to really enjoy every walk, every nap, every moment with Ringo because at almost 13 our time together is naturally winding down. I’m just so happy he’s doing so well and that even though he was so much harder, more difficult than our other three dogs, I was able to give him a really good life too.

Bonus joy: a cranberry bagel with cream cheese, making everyone laugh in Pilates this morning, getting in the pool, using the hydromassage chair, sitting in the sauna with Eric, a good watermelon, peaches, fresh tomatoes and basil, clean sheets, a warm shower, kindness from the tech at my appointment with the dermatologist, air conditioning, finding Ringo sleeping in the bathroom or under my desk in the morning where he’s been waiting for me to get out of bed (he gets up with Eric an hour before I do and is sometimes content to just nap on the couch by Eric, but sometimes he wants to wait “close by” for me), feeling sore, feeling stronger, doing the things I know I want the benefit of even when I don’t feel like doing them, my morning writing practice, poetry, comedy, audiobooks (I find that memoirs can be especially good when read by the author), listening to podcasts, getting all the laundry done before lunch, down blankets and pillows, book club, pizza, ice cream, texting with my brother, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.