Full of Joy Friday | Week 5 of 2021

Happy Friday, friends. I like to make a list of the things bringing me joy at the end of each week. True happiness comes from appreciating the small things and these posts help me stay focused on that. I’ve had two very difficult weeks in a row – I’m sure that many of you are in a similar boat. There are the dark days of winter, the chaotic political arena, and we’re all still riding the coronacoaster (thanks for that new phrase, Jordy!) — so let’s all settle in with a warm drink and our joy-finding glasses!

+ Lately I’ve been listening to the Classical Garden playlist on Spotify. Here’s the blurb for it: The perfect classical tunes for pruning, planting, and putting your feet up. Clearly I’m not spending much time pruning, but soon I will be planting in the basement. And, well, this week I’ve spent a lot of time with my feet up – and I can say that yes. Yes it is perfect. Right now I’m listening to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 and I have tears in my eyes. I’m fairly certain that I played a clarinet version of this at some point in my clarinet career and it’s really getting to me. (But almost everything is causing me to cry right now, so maybe it has nothing to do with the clarinet?)

+ Colton’s autism treatment center is very short-staffed and his services have been cancelled about once a week for a while now. He was cancelled on Monday and then he had a snow day on Tuesday – so he had a beautiful four day weekend at home! While that changes the way our school days look, it’s undeniably wonderful to have him home with us. I’m thankful for those days off with him!

+ Matthew and I watched The Dig on Netflix last weekend and it was perfect in every way. Beautiful sets, gorgeous scenery, wonderful acting, fantastic story. I highly recommend it!

+ I’m pulling back in a lot of areas right now, especially here on my blog. I didn’t post on Wednesday – it was the first Wednesday I’ve missed in almost a year. I didn’t write a What’s Saving Me Right Now post – which I’ve written every year since 2018. I didn’t write a monthly highlight post for January and didn’t/won’t participate in the linkups that typically go along with those monthly posts. It’s not that I don’t feel like writing – because clearly I do – but those bigger linkups can be quite stressful for me and I’m just not interested in the stress right now. Where’s the joy in this paragraph? I’m honoring my word of the year – stillness – with these decisions and choosing to step back. It’s giving me the freedom to think about the things I want this space to represent.

+ Exercise has kept me going this week. Am I allowed to say that? I’m not at all athletic nor do I typically enjoy exercise, but I’ve leapt over an exercise hump and there are obvious changes in my physical and cardiovascular health. It’s quite empowering to recognize that something that was once so hard is much easier. And it makes me want more!

+ I was on the yoga mat one day this week with tears streaming down my face through the whole practice. It wasn’t because the yoga was hard — it was perfect — but it was because… things are hard. I was thankful to have Adriene walk me through the practice and everything she said was exactly what I needed to hear, despite the fact that she recorded the session weeks ago.

+ Stillness has been another important part of my week. Of course, there will be much more about this at the end of the month, but I’ve considered stillness while making nearly every difficult decision this week. This is the first time my word has been so prominent in my life so early in the year, which probably indicates this was a good choice!

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Okay dear friends – that’s all from me this week. I’m looking forward to a weekend full of bundling up, playing outside, and enjoying the company of my band of savages. I hope your weekend is full of exactly what you need and that I’ll see you back here on Monday.