I woke up this morning happy, something had shifted, it was a revelation. It was somewhere between 6 and 7 a.m., still dark, my two little pugs were still sleeping and snoring and snuggled in, and I knew something had changed, something huge. I thought about the fact that yes, a hurricane hit here 4 weeks ago today and there is still a lot of damage here to deal with and yesterday a tropical storm blew threw, but all throughout there have been amazing friends, and dear family, and my sweet baby pugs, and I am getting through all of this, and life is just plain too damned precious to focus on BIG TOPICS all the time and to try to make it all SO IMPORTANT AND MEANINGFUL. I just want to go moment by moment and revel in it all.

There will be glorious days like today when I walked outside with the dogs and nearly cried out “It’s FALL!!!” because it was so gloriously cool and fresh. Yes, there is still an enormous pile of debris and downed trees all along the front of my property, and my beloved green gated fence is in pieces at the edge of the road, and everywhere up and down my street there are piles of debris and evidence of the hurricane that came through here and altered our landscape forever, and yes I’m still worried about how to afford to take down trees and fix things and on and on BUT IT’S FALL AND IT’S COOL AND IT’S GLORIOUS!!!

I walked the dogs for quite a while, we came in and I fed them, and then I went around and opened every single window in the house as wide as I could. IT’S FALL AND I WANT FRESH COOL AIR IN EVERYWHERE!!!

And the people I have been waiting to come help me really cut back bushes everywhere and clean up the yard really nice and cut the grass (Yes the debris will still be at the edge of the road and yes trees and branches still have to come down but…) are coming today and my darling Noni was here yesterday and we cooked fabulous keto food and watched a movie and had such a lovely time and she’s coming back tonight and we will cook the rest of our food. AND THIS WEEKEND I’M GOING TO GET PUMPKINS FOR THE FRONT PORCH.

Now, as I change this project’s focus, and oh, I just HAVE to, and that’s okay, I’m writing every day for 365 days and that’s all that really matters to me, I know there will be hard days, sad days, likely bipolary days, days when I have to take Xanax, when “the underground river” that I wrote about a few days ago will be raging  and I will need help, and support, or shed tears here as I write, but that’s okay, because “These Precious Moments” holds everything. It is about life. And yes, compassion will be part of it but it can’t be the all of it because some days, well every day, I just want to write about the moments as they come. That is enough. That is everything.

Oh gracious. I am bubbling over. The sun is shining, all this fresh cool air is coming in all 7 windows that wrap around the studio, and it is so glorious there just simply aren’t words wonderful enough to express it all. And the coffee is good and the fireplace app is popping and crackling here on my big desktop AND IT’S FALL AND IT’S GLORIOUS AND I FEEL SO HAPPY.

Something has happened, a shift has occurred, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the next day or the next and it’s not about writing about being all blissfully happy it’s about capturing the precious moments of my life as they come. This next year I am going to record my life and maybe really see what my life really means. I don’t know where this is going but I know this shift had to happen here. I have begun. For today that’s all that matters…