One of the best ways to make ourselves happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good.
—Gretchen Rubin
I’m sifting through happy memories for a soon-to-come
Field Trip Friday post. Have a great weekend!
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| Photo by Cody Chan on Unsplash |
As you might have guessed, fun has been in short supply
around here. The good news is my mother-in-law’s condition has improved a lot,
and we are cautiously optimistic that we can all have some summer fun
this year. In fact, I already kicked off my summer by traveling to California
and Washington for two and half weeks to see my mom, stepmom, and my friend
Kerri (more about that in a future post). I’d already planned and paid for this
trip before the health crisis, and looking forward to it kept me going when
things were hard.
Since I still really need things to look forward to (don’t
we all?!), I want to compile a summer fun list. Summer is definitely my lower
energy season, so I won’t push myself too hard, but there is something
to be said for what Laura Vanderkam calls “effortful fun.” And, since summer in
Florida usually lasts well into November, I still have plenty of time!
So far, here are the things I’ve planned:
Also on my list to read this summer:
Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik. I have an enduring
love of Paris-related literature.
The Creative Journal, Lucia Capacchione. I’ve had
this on my TBR shelf for a l-o-n-g time. I’m either going to read it or let it
go.
Two new-ish novels I hope to get from the library:
The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka.
The Lost Apothecary, Sarah Penner.
I’ll likely read a
lot more than this, but I’m leaving plenty of space and time for reading at
whim—one of my favorite simple pleasures.
Most of us seem to have a more laid-back attitude to life
during the summer months. We tend to relax, go on more vacations, and just
generally lighten up. It’s a perfect time to indulge in your favorite simple pleasures
and everyday adventures. Or, if you’re like me, to allow yourself to slow down and
rest a bit more. Whatever form your summer fun takes, I hope you do take the
time to schedule some things to look forward to.
What’s on your summer fun list? Share in the comments below!
A Very Low-Key Summer Checklist
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| Photo by Anika Huizinga on Unsplash |
While I hope to start posting regularly to Catching Happiness again soon, I’m not quite there yet. To give you an idea of what’s happening, here is an excerpt from May’s Happy Little Thoughts newsletter:
It’s been nearly a month since I stepped away from Catching Happiness to handle a family health emergency, and I’m sorry to say that
emergency has only become more serious. My mother-in-law, Carol, who has lived
with us since early last year, has been seriously ill with multiple health
issues, including two stints in the hospital and one round of major surgery.
She’s home now, stable, and we’re being supported by Hospice care.
This experience has been shocking for all of us, and an
example of just how quickly life can change. Until a month ago, Carol was
completely independent and seemingly healthy. We’re still finding our way,
figuring out what is comforting and helpful, what she can and can’t do for
herself. I’m still figuring out how to be her caregiver while also taking care
of myself. It’s a steep learning curve. How much I took for granted!
Breathing, for example.
One of Carol’s most troubling symptoms was the inability to
breathe easily. With the help of oxygen and medication, she’s doing much
better, but she felt like she was suffocating, and it terrified her (understandably).
Until recently, I hadn’t spent much time contemplating the gift of being able
to breathe! The simple act of drawing air into my lungs. Talk about a simple
pleasure!
Of course, we’d become paralyzed if we constantly
thought about how thin the line is between breath and suffocation, health and
sickness, freedom and dependence, life and death. But it doesn’t hurt to stop
now and then, as I’ve been forced to, to think on those things. To evaluate how
we’re living our lives, whether or not we’re doing the things we want to do,
being the people we want to be.
My advice is: If there’s something you want to do, don't wait. Find a way to make it happen. You never know when life will change abruptly and you’ll find it impossible to pursue those dreams.
Due to a family health emergency, I’m taking a break from Catching
Happiness. Thank you for your understanding.
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| Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash |
In honor of National Poetry Month, today’s post is a poem courtesy of American Life in Poetry.
Introduction by Kwame Dawes: Sometimes a poem achieves its beauty by a certain fixation on a small detail that is not burdened with the need to be “important”. Here, in “Oolong”, Adrienne Su creates her own tea ritual, a meditative moment to reflect on the ordinary, the quotidian. Tea and the drinking of tea, treated to such careful study, become a way to think of life as it moves from strong to weak and back again.
Oolong
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry
Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also
supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Poem copyright ©2021 by Adrienne Su, “Oolong” from Peach State, (University of
Pittsburgh Press, 2021) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the
publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The
introduction's author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English
and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
