Things that have made me feel alive recently

Late August edition

Things that have made me feel alive over the past two months:

• A hangout with friends at the botanic gardens

• Picnicking on a perfect summer evening to celebrate my one-year anniversary with Ian

  

• A life-and-brain-chemical-altering Maggie Rogers concert at Red Rocks

• Painting a backdrop for my first-ever paid prop styling gig, embracing the creativity

• Spending time with friends in New York that I haven’t seen in years

• Hearing stories from old friends about stupid things we did nearly 15 years ago

• Replacing a shelf that I stare at all day, that I’ve hated since I moved into this house four years ago, with two new shelves and a gallery wall I love

• Watching hundreds of bees swarm Goldenrod at the botanic garden

• Making brown sugar-shaken espressos at home

• Getting hired to facilitate a design thinking workshop for the first time in a couple of years, realizing I now have space to do more of this work I love

• Spending time with family in NY

• Catching up with a dear friend I rarely get to see in person in NY at a cafe I love (and now they love)

• Finding my name on the mitzvah wall, one of my favorite expressions of community care, at the aforementioned cafe, left by my aforementioned friend

  

• Validating my realization that deep, intentional, small group time with dear friends is more important than a bigger gathering even if parties are fun

• Running into a friend at the farmer’s market we hardly ever go to

• Snagging the most beautiful blooms from the local grower’s collective

• Biting into a Palisade peach at its prime ripeness (I had no idea before I moved to Colorado that they have some of the best peaches in the country!)

• Making sourdough English muffins and then making the most delicious breakfast sammies

What about you?