What’s to love?
This is an odd time of year for me. It usually is, but this year even more so. It was an unseasonably warm autumn in the south and winter is reluctant to stick. Although I love the late blooming roses, this shifting weather has left me a bit untethered to time. As a kid, this season was so specific. Halloween candy gave way to hand-print turkeys and cousins at the kid’s table. By the time December arrived, the Sears Catalog was already full of dog-eared pages. When you’re a kid, 55 days can feel like a lifetime. This year, I feel a bit disoriented. The weather is weird and the nightly news is heartbreaking. I want to start wrapping gifts and find a good recipe for stuffing but all I can think about is a bowl of butter pecan ice cream and a nap. While looking at an old Christmas photograph, I realized that 9-year-old-me understood something about self-care that 49-year-old-me has forgotten: Happiness isn’t a fixed location. Happiness is a million single moments, pressed one against the next. Happiness is found in the details. As I strive for overall health, the girl in the Christmas photograph reminds me that my favorite mug makes coffee taste better, car dancing isn’t ridiculous and naps are better with a cat pressed inside the crook of my arm. Looking for inspiration, as I move through the holiday season, I decided to ask some of the people I love most in the world about the little things that make them happy. The list below is what we came up with. Have fun and feel free to add your own ideas. After all, as Vincent van Gogh once said, “It is good to love many things.” (Starting with a good quote by Vincent van Gogh!)
Dark coffee with sweet cream
Clean sheets
Lavender
Plum wine
Board game night
Tiramisu
An unexpected snow day
Creating art
Bold women who speak truth
Kind men who create change
The telephone, when it doesn’t ring
And when it does
Expensive socks
Inexpensive books
Surprise mail
The power of saying yes
The freedom of saying no
Long drives, with the windows down and the radio up
Floating on a raft on the river
Eating dinner outside
Bonfires
And marshmallows
Flip flops and old sneakers
Tiny hands and sweet, small voices
Purrs and barks and all the other ways our furbabies say “I love you”
An empty page in a new journal
A full page in an old scrap book
A twenty-dollar bill, in the dryer
Falling asleep on a rainy afternoon
Waking up with no alarm clock
A good hair day
A sweet note on the kitchen table
Making spoons
Hearing “I love you” and feeling it, too
Good sleep
Being completely present
The very first brave step….
These are so wonderful. They made me smile and feel better. I’m going through a divorce right now and this helped. Thank you
I know how difficult a divorce, and all the things that go along with it, can be. (I really do.) My heart is with you. I’ll tell you what my therapist always tells me: Don’t forget self care! Be gentle with yourself! Sending positive thought and tons of good juju your way!