Thank you for colorful friends of varied ages, backgrounds, genders, religions, and values.

Thank you for openness to wisdom regardless of its source.

Thank you for the hungry-angry-lonely-tired (HALT) question from twelve-step that I learned on the Rich Roll Podcast with Whitney Cummings. That guy is such an Al Anon proponent. From what I’ve heard, it helps.

Thank you for migraines dramatically subsiding after addressing a caffeine dependence. My energy feels smoother. It’s also freeing to rediscover the ability to do hard things without a chemical boost.

Thank you for the comparison of how frustrated and crappy it feels before writing in the journal (There’s nothing to say!) with how relieved and happy it seems after. Today’s entry surfaced doubts about the choice to live at the park. Exploring those doubts increased my confidence in the choice. 

Thank you for how we can never know know if our decisions for the future are right. After all, none of us truly sees beyond the present. That’s okay, though. We still can make choices that lead us into the future with a straight spine, clear conscience, and easy smile.

Thank you for the solemness of the term “lavatorial jokes” contrasted with what it denotes.

Thank you for hygge season.

Thank you for leaf flurries.

Thank you for exhilarating bike adventures on unfamiliar routes.

Thank you for BW sending a pic of her with Cam and Echo. Thank you for her open door policy. Being near her made my life happier. It made me want to be nicer. She lives cheerfully and honestly, despite hardships, with grace.

Thank you for a future home with open doors. Thank you for dreams of garden-fresh food. Thank you for role models living their dreams “alone” yet surrounded by the love they’ve invested in all they do.

Thank you for the support of future nextdoor neighbors on either side. Thank you for their doggos.

Thank you for more of Marcus Aurelius’ advice to self: “Every time you lose your temper, make sure you have readily available the thought that anger is not a manly quality and that in fact gentleness and calmness are more manly, qua more human.”

And, “Fortitude, strength, and courage are attributes of a calm and gentle man, not one who’s irascible and easily offended, because the closer a man is to being impassive, the closer he is also to being a man of power” (Meditations 11.18, Waterfield translation).

I wonder if the emperor would have agreed with the use of “impassive.” My hope is that the original term was more like “equanimous.” Man(ly) can be interchanged with woman(ly), too.

Thank you for dim lights in the evening to help feel tired at the right time.

Thank you for the next kitchen adventure: broccoli sprouts! 

Thank you for greens—spinach, kale, arugula, cabbage, chard…. Thank you for fresh, juicy cabbage to ferment. Who knew it could be juicy? I recently found out.

Thank you for vegan junk food munchies.

Thank you for improvements in setting boundaries to protect wellbeing. The trick is to stay both loving and unyielding. That’s not my reality, simply the goal. It is an honor if “easygoing” applies to me. Yet with wellbeing on the line, inflexibility is preferred.

Thank you for memories of NYC as a comfy place. The public transit and walkability helped. A metro card is like the key to the city. And you never have to drive or find parking. 

Thank you doubly for student tickets to the New York City Ballet when Maria Kowroski was a principal dancer. Thank you for Shambards.

Thank you for wordless art tapping deeper than words into our emotions.

Thank you for an awesome roomie at the Gershwin House. Her warmth and wisdom touched me. We gave one another space. (Well, she gave me space.) It’s uplifting to think she’s in the world.

Thank you for sisters.

Thank you for volumes yet to be lived.

Thank you for when we have awareness of present and future opportunities for the good stuff that gives life meaning (connections, healing, joy, growth…).

Thank you for present moments relished and the memories they birth, like immortal souvenirs that feed our hearts the warmth of life.