Small Joy: Things to Look Forward to

It is hard to write. I will admit it.  I don’t want to put my thoughts on electronic paper and send them off into the ether.  I have been keeping them in.  I tell myself I am resting.  School ended, and I have been storing up energy for the past 3 weeks.  But the truth is I’m mentally and physically exhausted.  Where writing usually energizes  me, I found it to be a daunting task.  So I let myself take a break, and now I find it’s hard to get back into the flow.  What do I write about?  What uplifting story can I tell?  I do not know.

Back in April, my birthday month, a good friend gave me Sophie Blackall’s book, Things to Look Forward to: 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Every Day. That was such a happy coincidence because at the time I was reading Sophie’s children’s book called Farmhouse, which my friend did not know about.  I love Sophie’s designs and illustrations.  They are so comforting, so familiar.  She makes you feel right at home.  She got inspiration for Farmhouse from a falling-down home that was on the property she bought. She examined its contents and imagined its history.  She chronicles what she found before the house was torn down.  Her book is a wonderful tribute to a beloved family home.  I loved reading Sophie’s words, and looked closely at her intricate illustrations.  Each page uncovered joy.

So when I unwrapped Things to Look Forward to, I immediately knew I was going to love it. It is just what it claims – 52 things and reflections that the author enjoys.  Many of them are what I enjoy too: collecting pebbles, visiting a museum, or feeding the birds.  These are simple things in everyday life that I think most of us overlook, take for granted, and pass quickly from our thoughts.  But these are the things that enrich us, stay with us, and make us change and grow.  And most of all they comfort us – a hot shower, the first snow, baking something for someone, coffee. I love that Sophie took the time to slow down once again and catalog simple things.  Simple, small things matter.  I think they matter even more in a world that is divided, distracted, and spinning way too fast these days.  So I vow this summer to continue my rest – to look at the small things, examine what’s important to me, and write even when it’s difficult.