Happy Blogaversary!

 

Happy Blogaversary to me!

A year ago yesterday I started on this blogging adventure.  This is my 120th post so that averages to about one every 3 days.  A bit of an accomplishment if I do say so myself.

Today I've celebrated by going to my local bakery and purchasing 4 of the cupcakes you see above--one for each member of my family.  And I know my husband won't want one so then I'll have two.  Something tells me, though, the icing may just be too sugary, but I know I'll like the cake part.  I'm a cake kind of girl.

Buying cupakes reminds me of what Patti Digh says in her book, Life is a Verb.  She recommends that you always have a supply of birthday candles on hand to celebrate the little joys in life.  Sometimes we are so much on the go, working towards the next big thing, that we don't stop to celebrate our accomplishments and be grateful, because we're onto the next big thing.

What do you have to celebrate?

What are you grateful for?

Joy for Friday

Joy does not simply happen to us.

We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.

~~Henri Nouwen

Joy for Thursday

Keep knocking, and the Joy inside will eventually

open a window and look out to see who's there. ~~Rumi

JOY for Wednesday

Joy springs from within;

no one makes you joyous;

you choose joyfulness 

~~Unknown

Joy for Tuesday

We need Joy as we need air.
We need Love as we need water.
We need each other as we need the earth we share.

~~Maya Angelou

Joy for Monday

When we are centered in joy we attain our wisdom.

~~Marianne Williamson

I'm having a week of JOY.

All photos this week were taken by yours truly at the Birmingham Botancial Gardens on our vacation. That place brought me JOY for sure. I love these photos so much I had them made into enlargements at Walgreens. When I went to pick them up the clerk had me sign a form stating that I was the photographer and that they weren't done by a professional.

Photography brings me JOY.

A Week of Joy

As I've stated in an earlier post, it's been a rough summer.  Things aren't really better, nor are they worse.  Okay, maybe they're a little bit better.  But I'm tired.  Of all of it.  So for this week I'm going to attempt to do something and focus on JOY.  And I just thought of this right now, this very moment.

I recently bought another necklace from my friend Liz when she was running a special in her etsy shop.  She included one of her soul mantra necklaces with my order.  When we returned home from vacation last week I was thrilled to see the package had arrived.  As I tore it open, I thought to myself, "the soul mantra necklace is gonna say JOY on it."  Yep!  Liz knew what I need to focus on, even if I didn't know it myself.  She's such a wise soul.

Looking back on the day I can think of two things I did that brought me JOY.

1) Miles and I filled up the blow-up pool with water.  Despite the warm air, the water was cold.  But he and I sat and talked.  And then we did yoga poses in the water.  And danced together.  And were silly.  Even though we don't have a fenced in backyard and all the neighbors could see if they wanted to.

2)  I painted a background painting for the How to Paint an Owl ecourse I'm taking.  Yes, it's led by a woman named Juliette Crane and no, I don't think we're related.  I didn't paint like I usually do.  Instead I painted with my fingers.  Just like a child.  Mixing hue of pink.  And then the fun, fun of spray paint.  When I think of JOY, I think of the color pink.

JOY in the simple moments. 
JOY in art and creativity.
JOY in play.

Will you join me this week?