Catherine Newman, yet again, has me simultaneously smiling and crying:

“I don’t know what to say about this — the way I incline towards sadness, latch on to it as it floats past, ride up into its currents. But it keeps me grounded somehow, however paradoxical that may sound…Looking into the face of loss is like a bell of mindfulness for me. This very heart that pounds sometimes with anxiety — this heart is beating! These very noisy children who make me want to fill my ears with rubber cement — they are vibrantly alive! This very full-to-bursting life — well, it’s life, life itself. “

In the spirit of trying to recognize all the good in my beautiful, complicated crazy quilt of a life, I’m trying to count my blessings today. This is timely with Thanksgiving around the corner (did Thanksgiving move up a week? Am I the only person who feels that way?). And given that my children are mostly yelling, screaming ingrates lately, this is a topic I need to infuse our home life with a bit more actively.

Life is full of simple pleasures. A short list:

• clean, ironed sheets on my bed
• cold 20 oz diet coke with lime, out of the bottle
• the mail! (I am irrationally excited by the mail)
• Christmas cards
• having my head rubbed
• occasional afternoons all by myself to do nothing but wander, drive around, think
• peacefully sleeping children
• Weeds and Brothers & Sisters, my two favorite shows on TV
• A new spy/political thriller in hardback from Costco (Baldacci, Grisham, Connelly)
• Acela rides between Boston and New York
• good french fries
• Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc on the rocks
• hot Starbucks venti latte every morning (the thrill of being handed that cup never, ever fades)
• the smell of clean laundry
• the Davis Square farmer’s market
• Ben Harper’s new CD, especially “Having Wings”
• fall light on red, orange, yellow trees (Lacy, I think of you and walking on the tow path)
• the sound of halyards slapping against masts
• the peace and isolation of cross-country flights