A Year Aside: The good and priceless things

1. Walking my kids to the bus stop, on the same path I took 30 years ago

2. Diving and swimming in the lake at sunset

3. Breakfast at my uncle and aunt's farm

4. Picking fresh eggs straight from the coop and having them cooked the way you want for breakfast

4. Kids running wild in nature

5. catching frogs and toads

6. Garden bounty

7. Walking to the vegetable garden and fruit orchard to pick your dinner

8. Building the same dam in the same stream by the same pond as you did as a kid

9. Doing my niece's hair for a wedding

10. Awesome teacher for your kids

11. Morning walk in the vineyard

12. Morning jog by the lake

13. Fish gazing after school

14. Getting raw milk and pastured eggs straight from the farm during milking time, and getting to see our new friends at the same time

15. Old stones and history everywhere

16. Family reunion at my grandfather's farm, and watching my kids go down the same slope I did on little tractors with my 15 cousins, and building the same childhood memories.

17. Holding brand new chicks at the farm

18. Entering the church of your youth on a weekday morning, and being overcome with the feeling of never having left, the feeling of knowing every visual detail by heart, recognizing the mural you've stared at for hours during boring sermons and remembering all the stories it evoked.

19. Opening the big Bible in the church and falling on a verse that speaks directly to your heart

20. Bumping into childhood friends wherever you go

21. Recognizing classmate names from elementary school in your child's class roster

22. Hearing your children speak French

23. Picking and eating wild blueberries in the Alps