I have a lot of plants in my home. I love how they liven up the space and add beauty to each room. Some of them have been with me for years, growing through multiple seasons. During winter, a few go dormant. They don’t look as lively as they do in spring or summer.

If we were asked to reflect on our lives and assess how satisfied we are, I think most of us could agree; there’s usually something we want more of. More money. More time. More space. More status. More something.

I have several large trees in my backyard, and on any given day, I can look out my window and see bunnies, squirrels, and birds moving around the yard or darting through the branches.

I enjoy running, and I’ve been doing it on and off for most of my adult life. One year, I decided to challenge myself by signing up for a half-marathon. I trained for 12 weeks to make sure I’d be ready on race day.

Sometimes it feels like the weekdays are stuck on repeat: wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed, and do it all over again. This can feel especially frustrating if you’re in a job that doesn’t seem to make a difference, or one that feels disconnected from your calling

The weather can be unpredictable where I live. One day, I took my daughter to a terrarium-making workshop at a coffee shop about 20 minutes from home. When we arrived, the sun was shining, and the temperature hovered around 50 degrees.

I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. We didn’t have cell phones, the internet, or email. If I wanted to talk to a friend, I had to call them from a home phone, find a pay phone, or show up at their house and knock.

We live in a time when it’s become socially acceptable to cut people off without explanation, also known as ghosting. It’s often promoted as a way to set boundaries with those who are deemed unworthy of continued access.

We’ve all had a day or two when we’ve felt invisible. Maybe someone waved in our direction, and we waved back, only to realize they were greeting the person behind us.