This is one of the days I love Venice.

It helps that the boys are in school again, after a week home sick. I had the house alone. It’s quiet. The TV is off. I can admire what we’ve created here. The cozy space, the ocean blue tiles, the sunlight and green trees filling the window that dominates the house.

But it’s not about the house, even. I felt it as I drove home from dropping Emmett off at school. So what was it that made me feel today that I was in the right place, right now? Was it the convenience of stopping at Staples on Lincoln to get ink cartridges? Was it the Thrift shop window next door with its small handmade signs offering Halloween Costumes for $5? Was it the slow cruising down Palm Avenue, the cool hipness of Abbot Kinney, then turning down our own palm-lined street with its cottages painted different colors, and creative landscapes, unique styles, the energy of the streets? It was this, and the cool air of Fall. The Halloween decorations, the cobwebs and pumpkins. The lack of mansions. I’m not saying there’s no pretense here; there is certainly a Venice attitude, and some days I feel perfectly outside it. Completely uncool. But today I’m riding its harmonic waves, on which modern attitude coexists with vintage charm, where there is something humble speaking up today, where bigger isn’t better.

It’s Halloween, and the kids are out from their sick beds just in time. Their friends live in other places, and kids like to trick or treat with friends. But a miracle has graced us; they’ve agreed to trick-or-treat with their family, probably for the last time, here in Venice. Maybe they think the candy is better here. Or maybe their brains are still scrambled from fever. Or maybe they are feeling good here today, too, like me. Who can explain the ups and downs of feeling like you’re in the right place at any given moment? It’s enough to know it.