CARRIE CLASSON (cont.)

Christmas lights every time I opened my eyes and feeling loved and special enough to have my very own tree.

That is another good memory.

I've been telling my husband, Peter, that we are making good memories now. Of course, Peter and I are not working in a hospital or trying to teach school or dealing with grumpy retail customers. We are at home all the time except for our once every other week trip to the grocery store which is beginning to feel more like an exotic adventure every time we do it.

We are seeing no one so we can continue to visit Lori, who continues to fight cancer, and Peter cooks something for her every week and I read a bit more from my book (although by this time I have finished the first book and am reading a new one) and I know we will remember this time.

We won't have memories of a foreign landscape or a breathtaking performance or a fancy gathering.

Instead, we'll remember the excitement of hearing the doorbell ring and getting to chat with a neighbor on our front stoop. Our memories from this year will be of the same homecooked meal, the same routine, the same clothes worn, the same neighbors greeted from across the lawn, the same dogs on my walk-as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. We will remember. I might miss the excitement of a different kind of life.

But I know I will remember the small, good things in this year of lower expectations.

Carrie Classon is a writer and performer. She is the author of “ I’ve Been Waiting All My Life to be Middle Aged” and a syndicated columnist. Her memoir, “ Blue Yarn,” was released last year. Learn more at CarrieClasson. com.