1. Morning walks. Ringo and I did most of them by ourselves this week, as Eric was sick enough to be home from work but also sick enough he couldn’t go along. Each one that typically wasn’t my day to walk, as we are back on a “regular” schedule with Eric back at work fulltime so we alternate days, I thought to myself, “I’m the lucky one” — lucky to be out seeing the sunrise, lucky to be the one who gets to see all the animals (lots of owls lately), lucky to be able to walk, lucky to be with Ringo, lucky to be alive.

2. Canceling plans. Eric started feeling sick on Monday and at first, we assumed it was COVID, so I canceled everything on my schedule for the next few days, until we were sure it wasn’t anything contagious that I could pass on or that would take me out too. Except, the day that I thought I was safe to get back to my regular schedule, I had not one but two migraines and had to cancel all those plans too. Luckily, the only situations and relationships where I’m important are with Eric and Ringo, so canceling with everyone else but still being able to show up for them is workable. And for the one time I wasn’t able to help them with what they needed, there was Instacart.

3. Watermelon and peach season. I am most likely eating the last of these today but while they were here and I was able to have as much as I wanted, they made me so happy.

4. Ringo Blue. He was SO good this week, content to just rest and hang out with us as long as he got his morning walk and all his meals. With Eric feeling bad and needing extra care, and then me having an off day, it helped so much that Ringo was just okay with all of it. This is for sure one of the benefits of an old dog.

5. My tiny family, our small house, my little life. Just now, I can tell that Eric is feeling better because he is in the kitchen listening to his favorite old-time radio station, Radio Classics on SiriusXM. Earlier he was outside sitting in the backyard. This week he spent a lot of time sleeping, which is so unlike him I knew he didn’t feel good. I’m so glad he’s starting to feel better. This week was another reminder that we live in bodies that are impermanent and that more time together is never promised so we need to be so grateful and present, enjoy it while we have it and take such good care of each other.

Bonus joy: a new laptop, payday, pizza, our futon with the wool topper, air conditioning, our new to us lawn furniture, the new rug I got for the end of our bed so Ringo doesn’t slip on the wood floor when he gets up in the morning, deactivating my Facebook, new poetry collections, good books, YouTube shorts, listening to podcasts, having good music playing while driving with the windows rolled down, chrysanthemums, the trees turning gold, the cooler mornings, a hot cup of coffee and a warm mug of tea, a warm shower, rosemary mint shampoo, ibuprofen, seltzer water, urgent care, health insurance, asters, rabbitbrush, owls, crying, texting with Chris and Chloe’, getting to hang out with Carrie last week, people who share from their gardens, other people’s pets and kids, naps (so many naps), healthy eyes, being able to read, book club, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.

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.