Looking Forward To Everything, Always

I'm so excited to begin each and every day.  I look forward to absolutely everything.  Life wasn't always like this.  There were days upon days that I anticipated with boredom and exhaustion.  What changed?

Something tiny.  A very tiny thought popped into my head one morning while I was making breakfast.  I thought that maybe I would enjoy cooking, eating, and after breakfast clean-up quite a bit more if I did something creative with it.  So I did.  

That morning I rummaged through the fridge and came up with a small handful of veggies that I washed, chopped and added to a dab of melted butter in a skillet before scrambling my eggs.  And a pinch or two of spice.  Maybe four extra minutes of my time made all the difference, and I really enjoyed breakfast.  

During clean-up, I kept a notepad and pencil handy.  I thought about what I might make tomorrow and I wrote it down.  I even thought about busy mornings on the fly when a piece of toast and Nutella was all I'd have time for.  I resolved that on those mornings, I'd use fine china for my tea and toast.  Or spread a cloth and have a floor picnic.

Those thoughts took me through the day and here and there I began to write down things that would easily add pleasure to other routines.  I thought about adding a flower--just one--to my table every day.  And I thought about places to get flowers and about crocheting doilies and all sorts of other things, too.  And I wrote them in my notebook.  Some weren't practical, but it was fun thinking them up and writing them down.

I thought about expanding this.  Seeing every single piece of monotony in my day in a different light.  And I thought about driving, and how I hated it.  So I resolved to notice one new thing on each and every drive and to remember to write it in my notebook.  Once I noticed a shirt on a man standing at a corner.  Another time I noticed that the telephone wire running along the outside of a building I always passed was painted blue.  Just tiny things.  But life started becoming more exciting.  I began to look forward to seeing.  And I fell in love with thinking up ways to add something playful to every routine.

Some other tiny things that made a big difference were how I turned book reading and film watching--things I've always savored--into an end of the day ritual, and how I purposely skip some days and just keep them open.  How I randomly pick a day each week to sip wine or tea in bed while listening to music.  How I invite my family to join me, or ask them let me spend my time privately, and what a huge difference voicing an invitation or a desire to be left alone can make, and how it gives a choice to others.

And then, all of a sudden one day I realized that I looked forward to everything.  All of it.  And the most beautiful thing happened along the way--I have very a hard time now remembering how it felt to be bored.

Comments

[sharon k.]

tiny things adding up to make a profound difference! so true, barbara. thanks for the reminder.

[Joanne Thieme Huffman]

excellent habits, and so easy to do!

[Ingrid Petrini]

Thanks for sharing

[Rita Ackerman]

This is an amazing and thought provoking post. I'm going to give it a try. Can't wait to find out what I see.

[Rosie]

Oh heck, yes, yes and YES! My limited life as a disabled person would be deadly dull without this change of attitude and way of seeing the world. I practice a Pollyanna point of view - which takes work but is so worth it!

Lovely to see that, like me, you've become an art journaller! Our styles are very different but thats half the fun isn't it?