My beautiful cousin Anne inspired me this past week. For the month of June she created a Joy book (using her creative talents she literally created this book from scratch, cutting out her own pages and sewing the book together) although I didn't personally create a book, I am stealing the idea.
If you want to follow along, and I encourage you to do so, because what can it hurt to find joy in your life? Here is what you do.
Create your own Joy book. Maybe it is a note place on your iphone, or an email you send to yourself everyday. Maybe it is an old journal or maybe you spend the time to, page by page, create your own Joy book master pieces. Whatever you chose to do, you will need a place to jot down notes that you can go back and read over and over again.
Have your note place ready? Now is the easy part... jot down all the things in life that bring you joy. At first I know this might sound like a daunting task. But start easy. Here is my list for today so you can see how simple it can be.
Joy list:
-Being greeted every time I come home by my cat
-frozen blueberries in chocolate almond milk
-New sheets on the bed
-The rustle the trees make when a slight breeze is blowing
-easy to slip on flip flops.
Make your list everyday for a month. It is amazing how appreciating the small joys in your life will continue to help you see them. We are surrounded by so many amazingly beautiful things... so go out there and find them.
What makes you smile?
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Sore from the struggle
Last night I was lucky enough to join a beautiful group of spirited rock climbers in Clear Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful night, sun kissed with the last hours of the warm July sun. Two lines were quickly set up (thank you Tyler and J for your agile climbing skills) and I was subsequently tied in just as quickly, rope through harness tied off with a double figure 8..... breathe
Although the routes were both 5.8 an easy start for us regular rock gym monkeys, nature invaded from all corners, filling the nostrils, lining the underside of the fingernails, scrapping the knees, adding a whole new sensation to a very routine activity. The heart pounding, the feet and fingers finding the rock, the body slowly climbing vertically.... breathe
The top, like the last bands of sun rays was warm, inviting, and breathtaking. My arms today, vibrating with fatigue and taxed from the strain are reminding me of the growth after a struggle.
Some mountains in life will be high, the boulders hard to cross, the vertical climb slow. Your fingernails will get dirty, your knees will get scrapped, but I promise the top, bathed in light will be worth the climb. You will feel it the next day, week or even months after, the growth through change. However, once you take that first step you have taken the hardest move on the climb. After all we can't get to some place we have never been if we never try things we have never done.
I encourage you today to take that first step up the climb you have in your life. Maybe like me it will be tied into a marmot harness with 70 meters of rope just begging to be played with. I promise you will be sore, this time, but those muscles you are stretching, training, using will be all the stronger next time and you too can climb the next route, challenge or obstacle with a smile feeling how much easier it gets when you keep at it.
Although the routes were both 5.8 an easy start for us regular rock gym monkeys, nature invaded from all corners, filling the nostrils, lining the underside of the fingernails, scrapping the knees, adding a whole new sensation to a very routine activity. The heart pounding, the feet and fingers finding the rock, the body slowly climbing vertically.... breathe
The top, like the last bands of sun rays was warm, inviting, and breathtaking. My arms today, vibrating with fatigue and taxed from the strain are reminding me of the growth after a struggle.
Some mountains in life will be high, the boulders hard to cross, the vertical climb slow. Your fingernails will get dirty, your knees will get scrapped, but I promise the top, bathed in light will be worth the climb. You will feel it the next day, week or even months after, the growth through change. However, once you take that first step you have taken the hardest move on the climb. After all we can't get to some place we have never been if we never try things we have never done.
I encourage you today to take that first step up the climb you have in your life. Maybe like me it will be tied into a marmot harness with 70 meters of rope just begging to be played with. I promise you will be sore, this time, but those muscles you are stretching, training, using will be all the stronger next time and you too can climb the next route, challenge or obstacle with a smile feeling how much easier it gets when you keep at it.
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