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| Luna ready for action |
Happy Friday, everyone! I don’t mean to rub it in, but here
in Florida we’re enjoying a stretch of pleasant weather—i.e., cool temperatures
and lower humidity. I haven’t had to wear shorts for a couple of weeks! (Everyone
is happy about that.) Today, I’m going to take Luna for a walk and work on a
freelance project with my windows open! Simple pleasure!
Here are a few tidbits from my recent internet explorations
that I think you might find interesting:
I find almost everything David writes on Raptitude
thought-provoking. Here’s a short excerpt from his “How to Enjoy Life”:
“Life’s enjoyment isn’t all locked up the things we want to do. There’s enjoyment available to us in almost all of the obligatory maintenance stuff too. It is possible to enjoy standing in line at the deli, sweeping the floor, turning the compost pile, sitting in traffic, and untangling Christmas lights—unless we see those parts of life simply as obstacles to the enjoyable parts, as we often do....
“We don’t do these things—or most things—for reasons of pleasure, but pleasure is available in most things.”
A few words of caution and advice regarding the constant
insistence that we leave our comfort zones from “Please Stop Telling Me to Leave My Comfort Zone”:
“In a world of increasing demands on our time and attention, our comfort zones act as predictable spaces of mastery where we can seek refuge when the stress becomes too much. They act as containers to shore up confidence, gain momentum, and think clearly. When we spend less time grappling with discomfort, we can focus more on what matters most. If the people who routinely push themselves past their comfort zones are metaphorically skydiving out of airplanes, those of us who choose to operate from within our comfort zones are serenely laying bricks, creating a home we can thrive in.”
An unexpected loss spurred Emily Maloney to write “Why I’ve Become a Now Person.” The amount of upheaval in my own life in the past few
months made this piece resonate with me. “Make all your resolutions immediate,”
she writes. Working on it.
If you’re still working on not caring what others think (as
I am), here’s some advice from Marelisa Fabrega at Daring to Live Fully:
“If you rely on the opinion of others to feel good about yourself, then of course you’re going to give a lot of importance to what others think of you.
“Therefore, if you want to stop caring what others think, you need to start relying on yourself for validation, instead of relying on the validation of others. That is, you need to trust yourself.”
Gretchen Rubin knows plenty about happiness—it was 10 years ago that her book The Happiness Project came out. In this post, she shares “30 Tips I Use to Make Myself Happier, Right Now.” Because, “Yes, of course, sometimes terrible circumstances make it impossible for me to be happy, but it’s almost always possible to be happier, and often with just a few small steps, I can give myself a big boost.”
Futureme.org allows users to write letters to their
future selves. What encouragement or wisdom could you send to yourself one
year, five years from now? This idea intrigues me, and it’s free.
One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, passed away on January 17. She’s a good choice if you’re not sure you’ll enjoy reading poetry. Read about her life here (I just discovered we shared the same birthday!)
One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, passed away on January 17. She’s a good choice if you’re not sure you’ll enjoy reading poetry. Read about her life here (I just discovered we shared the same birthday!)
Or listen to her read her poem “The Summer Day,” which ends with
the lines most of us have heard:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
Note: Starting this month, the Happy Little Thoughts
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