Here now

View from my parents front yard Christmas Eve. Spectacular.

Well here we are, the day after Christmas. Aftermath. Here. Now.

The button popped off my jeans when I crouched over the other day. That would be one too many Christmas cookies. One too many glasses of wine.

I went with J for a bike ride this afternoon, I was silent because of this deep yet shallow breathing/gasping for breath I was doing.  I was sore from an hour and half bike ride. Frustrated as I was I reminded myself that I will just see drastic improvement from here on out. I told J thanks for sticking with me on the ride, he told me to tell him that in 50 years.

Here is a nice perspective from a woman who feels close but is far away. We are here now. here. now.

This is what I want to give to people for New Year's. No really it is what I want for New Year's.

Pretty sure my Dad makes the best apple pie, Mom peeled the apples. He also made black berry and a peanut butter pie for our Christmas Eve celebration. And pork ribs, which I learned how to make including his special sauce that he has been using since I was teenager.

Photos of food that I can get lost in for hours.

The other day I heard Dr. Andrew Weil discuss his new book, Spontaneous Happiness, where he talked about how inner contentment can lift depression:

“I was very surprised in writing this to discover how much scientific evidence we have for the power of gratitude to improve mood. There’s two aspects to this. It’s feeling grateful and expressing it. And the good thing here, there’s nothing in the way of doing it. All you have to do is remember to do it. You know, forgiveness also has great power, but that’s tricky. There’s a whole lot in the way of being forgiving.

But there’s nothing in the way of expressing gratitude. There’s a simple exercise from positive psychology called keeping a gratitude journal. You get a little notebook, keep it by your bed; during the day, make mental notes of things you have to be grateful for, jot them down when you go to bed. Doing that for one week can cause improvement of mood for up to six months. And that’s pretty dramatic.”