Now that my classes begin at 10:30, you would assume that I would be in bed until 10:29; I would assume the same, but this hasn't been the case. Instead, I find myself getting up a hour and a half early, even a little more. I make breakfast, I check my email and read some diaries. I have a big mug of tea and listen to a little music. I feed my cats and snuggle them for a while. I wake on my own time instead of being ripped mercilessly from sleep by an evil alarm clock set to the worst radio station possible.

I've set up my little desk area to be in the sun. I've hung some curtains that don't keep out all the light, so instead of waking in darkness, I wake to sunlight (at least for the rest of the summer and part of fall) and sit with my tea in a gossamer nook bathed in diffused light with several healthy and living plants, a couple of fuzzy cats and Sarah Harmer.

Life can be good. It's all a matter of noticing those good things and soaking them in while you can.

Being the person that I am, when I am in a happy moment, a true, happy moment, I relish it as best I can because I know that it might not necessarily last. The trick is working on making these moments meet in the middle somehow, the way ground-cover Corsican Mint can grow together and push out the weeds.