Azalea, anemone, andromeda. The garden is much on my mind. Lee and Tom were at my place earlier this week. We began talking about downsizing. The first step is taken. Lee pruned. I’ve been raking. Much of my drive time this week has been filled with garden thoughts. Maybe I’ll buy pansies this weekend.

*****

I just signed up for an online course. I get an email newsletter, a marketing thing left over from a conference I attended on learning and the brain. The email newsletter is out of Berkeley and is about the science of happiness. I skim it and sometimes something catches my eye. (I haven’t unsubscribed.) What caught my eye in this most recent issue is this online course–self guided–free–about happiness–research, strategies. I’m skeptical but curious. I wonder about happiness as a goal. Is this a good thing, a desirable goal? my cynical side asks.

*****

My mind feels cluttered–the book I’m working on for my job, the garden plans, house repairs that need to be done, changes I might make to my diet to get through allergy season, summer plans with friends, ways I could budget both time and money better. I sit to meditate and my mind spins and leaps and jumps–monkey mind leaping and jiving, monkey mind on steroids. Soon I decide enough and push stop on the timer even though only 10 minutes have passed.

*****

I heard coyotes last night as I snuggled into bed, thankful the cat likes to be an indoor cat and was snuggled next to me. Last winter I heard a great horned owl several nights–or maybe two of them calling to each other. Wild suburbia.