Some days, like today, I find it hard to find delight. Some days, like today, I’m in the middle of a 48-hour chemo infusion, it’s raining, I’m kind of tired, and my face is rosy red from treatment. I’m feeling pretty down.

I listened to a guided meditation by Tara Brach yesterday. The Yes Meditation. It’s been helpful to think about today. To remember that even the melancholy days are to be embraced with a Yes instead of turned away with a No. Or at least acknowledged, if the Yes is too much to get to. My friend Karen sent me a few cartoons about inviting your fear in for tea and crumpets. Here’s one of them:

I have a lot of fear. And I’m trying to sit with the acceptance of where I am. It’s both easy and hard. And then I’ll go to acupuncture. You know. Friday afternoon.

I remembered recently how much I can find delight in what I like to call “accidental expanses of time”–those two-hour or more chunks of time that sometimes make themselves available. And so I wrote a list of things that I love to do when those expanses appear and it’s been helpful. I had a couple of hours in between things the other day so I made a vision board. It felt great. Other things on my list include reading, writing letters, going to a museum. Things like that.

What I’m less good at are the smaller chunks of time. The 30 minutes between finishing a task and my next appointment. Maybe I need a list for that, too.