I wrote this phrase in a recent email note and immediately thought of the book “Stalking the Wild Asparagus”*. Not that I’ve read it, mind you, but the idea behind the title (at least what I imagine it to be) is one I love. Focus on what you can find available for the picking, and focus on the joy and deliciousness as opposed to the sometimes unrewarded work involved.

Calendar stalking, where we look at the calendar and think about all that can be discovered.

• There’s work on the house to get it ready to sell. The timing of that sale, from listing to contract to close. Does our second child want to be in the house for Field Work Term (Bennington College’s required internship program that runs from early January to mid-February)? What about spring break for our firstborn? When is the best time to list a house? Can we do the Zillow “make me move” and what does that entail?

• There’s work on the boat to get her ready to inhabit. The bunk is 90% done. We’ve agreed we are farming out the making of the cushions - yes, we could do the work ourselves, but unlike a lot of the other boat projects this is one that someone else can competently and more efficiently do better than we can. So many of the projects really can’t be done by anyone else! The galley is down to a phallic sink drain; the chart table completely demolished. The windlass and anchor sit in our garage awaiting installation. Thank goodness we have the offer of a place to live down by the water while we knock off these projects.

• There’s scheduling of medical procedures, chief among them the wisdom teeth removal for both kids. After the first of the year? When can that happen?

• There’s Thanksgiving, which apparently we are hosting in Charlottesville. Christmas, which will be hosted in Vermont at my parents’ new place. There’s moving them into said new place and out of the house they’ve lived in for 20 years. There are kids and college breaks.

• There are fun weekends with friends and family. Beetlejuice on Broadway, yacht club parties, Annapolis boat show in the spring and teaching Cruisers University classes.

• There’s selling the cars - which ones when? Staging the house, which means getting rid of furniture and books and artwork. But keeping it livable, because, well, comfort is important. Or as long as we have a place to sleep and cook and eat - is that comfort enough?

This is a lot of calendar stalking to be accomplished in the next 8 months. May the unexpected finds give us joy and deliciousness.

*As an Amazon affiliate, I earn through qualified purchases.