I had a totally different blog post scheduled for today. I was going to come back and write something about taking care of yourself when you work at home, blah-blah, working at home but remembering to live at home, balance, time for yourself, whatevs.

But during my morning walk, that faded away. I'm not a dog person, but we have dogs. I'm not crazy about them. They are not my fur-babies. I like them, I take care of them, I'm happy when they're happy. I don't like them when they wake me up early to go for a walk. And how did it get to be that I, the non-dog-person, is the one walking them every morning? They are a multiple-layered mystery, and that is one of them.

In any case, I was walking early this morning. We've had a long stretch of chilly rainy weather that has precluded a lot of garden work and has kept the kids inside. It feels a lot more like October than June. But then, today, the sun came out and everything was washed and fresh and bright. It's warm and almost humid. Forest wildflowers are blooming and the undergrowth is lush and rich. The creek is running from all the rain and the world is alive.

I mentioned that a year ago, I took a week off to be able to be at home for Ian's play practice. By this time, at the end of the week, I was despairing that the time was almost over, and I morbidly counted down in my head how many hours I had left, and I mourned that I hadn't spent the time as I had wanted to -- looking for a work-at-home job, playing more with the kids, being more patient. I was focused on the bad stuff that was coming at work, and paying more attention to stuff I hated than stuff I loved.

This year, as I was walking in the woods, I felt my heart open and I was so grateful to be where I was. I was grateful to John, for taking a job that made my flexibility possible. I was grateful to myself for working hard and asking the universe for opportunities I knew I could succeed at. I was grateful to the universe for listening. I'm not religious, but I felt like a big thank-you note to the cosmos for where I was. I know I am privileged to be able to say that. What are you grateful for, and are you grateful for what your opportunities?