My Doctor's Prescription for the upcoming year

Well, it was time for the annual physical, so I headed off to my wonderful doctor, to take stock of where I am on my journey towards adulthood.   As always, I came away with his advice, and two prescriptions. The first prescription was for the basics (thyroid pills, etc).  The second prescription was for the more complicated work.

You can see that prescription to the right:  it is taped into the front of my daytimer.   Basically?  Balance. Everyone, says he, needs to take care of their mind, their body, and their spirit.   The challenge for me is that my mind/intellect gets so much exercise, and is so very very big and strong and heavy, that it is getting harder and harder for my aging body to carry it around!  (let alone the challenge of also carrying around my delicate and fragile ego!)  :-)  Thus, the importance of a well balanced three-legged stool (so my body can have a comfortable rest when my brain is just to heavy to walk around with?) 

OK.  He is always reminding me of my brain's duties to my body on the nutrition and physical activity front, but this is the first time that he made a slight re-adjustment, and instead of telling me to reduce stress in my life (as IF?!), he told me to focus on incorporating joy.   

OK.  Joy.  I like that word a bit better.  

So... this morning, in an effort to work on two of the stool's legs, I took Penny the dog out for an early morning walk down to Arbutus Cove (10-15 minutes walk from home).

 It was quiet apart from the birds chattering away in the trees.  

 https://youtu.be/jqveLPdu2qg

The sky was full of clouds, and the beach was empty.

I love the dance of light on the water

A seal's head kept bobbing up to take a look along the beach

Try these two links if you want to join me on the beach (videos!)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlSotfXtEdQ (a view of the beach panning across the horizon)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p43kJ4b4Tw (a view of the beach panning up and down)

Is that a Cypress or Sequoia towering so high?

The walk back home is equally lovely. 

The street is lined with cherry trees (you can see them looking so small against the height of the larger trees around them.  

It is cherry blossom time here , and the occasional breezes were bringing the petals down like a gentle snowfall.

Penny wondering if petals are tasty

Too bad I can't capture the fragrance

The view of my own feet certainly reminded me that I prefer having to kick petals off my shoes than to kick off the snow.

So, in short, I most definitely got my daily dose of joy.  Just following the doctor's orders (or at least a FEW of those orders... I am pretending I just didn't hear what he said about cutting back on the coffee)