3 free things I did this week, to cultivate my personal joy

The busyness of life can rob me of joy, if I don't cultivate it on my own. 

Cultivating joy is a lot like tending a garden. When I plant the seeds, I also have to clear the area of weeds, then continue keeping weeds at bay. I need to water and feed my little baby plants if I want them to flourish. If I do nothing to care for my garden, then my seeds will sprout, but the seedlings will quickly be overtaken by weeds, pests and disease. It really doesn't take a lot of time or effort to result in a satisfying small garden.

My desire for personal joy are my "seeds". As I make small amounts of time for myself throughout the week, I am tending the growth of my joy. Over time, my personal joy grows, I become calmer and more centered. And I am able to "see" with my heart, what in my life has true meaning.

It doesn't take an exceedingly long list of treasured moments to cultivate joy. Just two or three special moments each week are enough to bring my life into balance. Let the busyness of the world continue to spin around me.

Sunday afternoon, I took a few minutes to write down 3 ways I could savor life and cultivate personal joy. If I write them on my weekly to-do list, I find a way to work these items into my week.

So, here are my 3 things (free things at that) that I did this week, to cultivate my personal joy.

1. got up early, then I lounged in the bath, infused with essential oils -- lavender, lemon and spearmint
2. listened to favorite music while working out. The right music keeps me motivated and moving briskly.
3. wandered the yard looking for hopes of spring. I found the very tippy top of daffodils and crocus breaking through the ground in some of the sunnier spots of the yard. And violas and pansies still blooming in the pots on the deck which I pulled close to the house in November.

Are there a few things you could do this week, to cultivate personal joy?

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This week's lunch round-up -- need a bit extra for one family member

Just as I get comfortable with our schedule, everything changes, again. But this is a good thing. I just need to adjust.

One of my daughters is pursuing a double major -- theater and education. Ultimately, she'd like to teach, and/or work in children's theater or television. Well, she auditioned for the spring production on campus and got the part she wanted. She's very excited, as this is her first main-stage production. However, schedules need to be altered for the next 3 months, as she'll have evening rehearsals 4 nights, and 1 weekend day, per week. She won't have the opportunity to come home and get a bite to eat most of the week, so she'll need to pack extra with her, to cover lunch and dinner each day. (And since she often takes breakfast to go as well, she practically needs another backpack just to carry a day's worth of edibles!!)


Sunday afternoon I baked a large batch of pumpkin muffins and a toaster-oven full of potatoes. I also made a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches. (I don't put jelly on them, as that just seeps through the bread after sitting in the fridge for a few days.) And I put plain yogurt into screw top plastic containers. Family can add berries or fruit syrup to the yogurt in the AMs, according to their preference.

For additional items, I made a pot of tomato-basil soup, plus some mini ham buns. I was making sandwich bread on Monday, and wanted to make 1 portion of dough into small buns, so I added an egg and some milk to the whole batch of dough, to make it more bun-like.


So, here's the round-up:

• tomato-basil soup
• ham buns
• peanut butter sandwiches
• pumpkin muffins
• baked potatoes
• yogurt
• fresh oranges
• prunes from last summer's harvest

Yummy, quick and inexpensive!!

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"The best dinner ever"

Do you ever finish up a meal and think to yourself, "that was the best dinner ever!" And then you realize, it was just an ordinary meal, but what made it so delicious was your own appetite.

I have that experience about once or twice per month. I'm just the right amount of hungry to appreciate even the most mundane of meals. Last Thursday was one such meal. It was homemade cheese pizza that I had in the freezer. Not even any special toppings, or even freshly made. I do reheat my frozen pizzas directly on the rack in the oven, so the bottom of the crust is crispy. That may help. And to go with the pizza, we had, now let your appetite whet .  .  .  frozen peas! And rhubarb sauce!

So, nothing super spectacular. Just an ordinary weekday dinner. The difference between having this meal on that night and any other, was our appetites.

There's an old saying, "hunger is the best sauce". Nothing more true in cooking than that.

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