Issue 5 of the beautiful magazine Bella Grace carries a gorgeously illustrated quote from a chap called H. Jackson Brown Jr as follows:
“Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can’t put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones.”
What small pleasures gave you moments of intense joy in 2015?
What more could you cultivate in 2016?
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Why is it that I always wait till I’m sodden with wine and then try to write? That is the thousand dollar question as they say. I’m happy to say my day of nothingness did go as planned.
I’ve spent the day admonishing my dog, Sheba and reading Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. The book is read and the dog quiet. I’m having trouble retrieving myself from the book. But I have come up with a word for the coming year: ORDER.
For now and today, especially these grey days of December, I like to indulge and pamper myself with the sensual. ‘Tis the season after all. ‘Tis the season between autumn and spring, after the harvest and before the sowing. It’s that time of pausing to nourish and plan for the coming season. There will be much work of sowing, creating, working – the projects, the garden, the life.
I’m learning to love the days I used to dread, these sunless days of December. Once they filled me with anxiety and sadness. Now the grey sky blankets me with warmth and ease. It tells me it’s okay to be slow. It’s okay to be lazy. It’s okay to do a day of nothing. I can languish with a book. I can indulge in hot chocolate with a marshmallow or two. Everything is copacetic.
There! My two favourite words – languish and copacetic. Both in one paragraph. I’ve missed them, my two friends. Such a long time since I’ve last written you. Surprising how two words can give me so much pleasure. But I am not one with big desires. Give me the smallness, the seemingly inconsequential. I will find comfort and happiness there.
- hot chocolate with 2 marshmallows floating on top
- tapping out my words
- capturing everyday life my iPhone
- coffee with a friend/my mother
- a smile from a stranger
- the feel of his hands on my face
- Sheba at my feet
- the aroma of bread/cookies/cinnamon buns baking
- warm bubble baths/clean sheets
- a mindful swim
- and so on and on…..
Memories of all the little and everyday things will sustain me into the new year and on. I need not try harder. I need not yearn for more. This is enough for now and 2016.
onethousandandtwo 