For months now, Dave and I have been mostly working, eating, and sleeping, then working, eating, and sleeping some more. He has been getting orders for furniture, and I’m trying to write my second book in the early morning before I go to work and on the weekends. (Blatant self-promotion: The first book comes out early next year, which I still can’t believe. YAY!)
Yesterday, I took a rare Saturday off, and a friend of ours helped me plant a small garden—just a little color around our deck and patio. Sometimes, you don’t realize how much you’ve missed something until it comes back. Getting rid of all the dead brown leftovers from last year (or was it the year before) and filling those containers with fresh green ferns and color-explosion hibiscus and mandevilla and petunias—it changed everything. Just looking at those beautiful colors can lower my blood pressure. (I couldn't take a picture this morning because it's raining, hallelujah, so I'm sharing a pic from a previous summer's garden.)
I’m often guilty of an all-or-nothing attitude. I can’t go to the gym every day, so there’s no point in going at all. I don’t have time to water all the flowers I usually plant, so I won’t plant anything at all. I don’t have time to play the piano as much as I used to, so I won’t touch those keys.
That’s not a very productive or positive way to think. Just makes me beat myself up all the time for the things I’m not doing instead of being happy about the little things I can do.
Little things. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy them, to be satisfied with them and thankful for them. Amen? Happy Sunday!