Gray all day today but no sign of rain yet. I spent the morning doing food prep, while Hubby did some errands and watched rugby (England lost). We went for a short walk in the farm park; his foot was hurting, so that’s about all we can muster these days.

For the first time since February 22 I sent a newsletter to subscribers of my website. It used to be a weekly, then biweekly, thing for a long time. But writing this daily blog takes some of that energy away. I was reminded how much I enjoy blogging about self-care, so I’m going to pledge to get a plan together and start posting to that “other” blog space of mine.

This afternoon I had a video conference call with a couple of close pals from college. Neither of them live in Montana anymore but both of them happened to be there together today (one visiting long-term and the other passing through on a cross-country road trip). It was fun to see them and catch up. Although we’re all friends on Facebook, there’s nothing like chatting in real time, sorta face to face. Here we are with our gray hair and wrinkles (although I’m still not gray!), but still the same old feisty gals we were years ago. Who would have thought 35+ years ago when we were in college, we’d be seeing one another live on a computer screen as women of a certain age? Kids are grown, parents are aging, and the world would be unrecognizable if we’d slept the sleep of Rumpelstiltskin and woke up in 2021.

Another close friend is dealing with putting her mother in a care facility today (and on my friend’s birthday, no less); something we’d all like to avoid but is often all too inevitable. On my last birthday, I too was packing up Mamacita’s apartment in preparation of moving her to another space. The child becomes the parent, and we wake up one day wondering where all the years went. I used to think 16 was ancient and the end of life as I had known it up until then—seriously. But these days I’m succumbing to the contentment that being older brings, even though the body changes can really suck.

I see peaceful gardens in my future. And good friends that will always be there for me.