Welcome to Day 2: Micro-dosing Joy
Write for 15 minutes about a thing that soothes you
Like many others right now, I’ve been reading Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May.
It’s been helpful to me as a tool in helping me step back and look at this season of winter and this season of life in new ways. She models not only acceptance of the natural world during this time but also finding ways to embrace seasons of change and upheaval.
In Wintering, May writes:
“I recognized winter. I saw it coming (a mile off, since you ask), and I looked it in the eye. I greeted it and let it in. I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see. I've learned them the hard way. When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me.”
Prompt 2.
Spend a few minutes thinking about the small things you do each day to soothe yourself: a special snack, a walk in the woods, a few minutes at breakfast to gaze at your bird feeder. Write about one of them for 15 minutes.
Share your writing below.
Lately my lessons have been teaching high schoolers how to talk and write about daily routines in Spanish. They have to identify what comes first or last in a morning routine before leaving for school. “Do you eat breakfast before or after brushing your teeth?”, for example. But to focus on my own behaviors is harder. My inquisitive and always-hungry lab knows my movements better than I do. So I ponder it a moment, in between putting on knee highs and remembering to take my meds. The two things I do as self-care, without realizing, has been to stretch and to look at the beautiful things in my home.
Stretching-
I do this for connection to my body, given that it seems to slow me down from what my mind has planned each day. The stretches not only feel good but sort of reassemble my parts as though I were a wooden figure held together by rubber bands. (Do you know which ones I’m referring to? They’re old-fashioned.) There’s my hand, my toe, the nape of my neck, my jaw, my pelvis and lower back… and my knees.
Looking at beauty-
As I scurry to prepare lunch while boiling water for tea, I look at the sculpted birds on my window sill. One is painted in iridescent colors while the other is sky blue glass. As I pack my teacher bag, I see the painting of a woman looking off into the distance with calm. As I open the blinds for my dear plants, I notice the fabric wall hanging of koi fish making ripples in a pond. Then there are the graduation photos of our three, grown kids, a piece of fossilized coral and ceramic dishes hanging on the kitchen wall, which once graced that of my grandmother’s kitchen. So much love reflected back to me: from family, from nature, from art.
Finally, I set my tea to brew and place the leash on Marisol to take her next door to keep my mother company while I’m away at work.
The little rituals that make my days flow and help me to get through the tougher times seem to often revolve around food. I am a chef, so it makes sense that I view a lot of the world though the cuisine filter, but it isn’t necessarily the wonderful meals out or the epic cooking sessions for friends that make my world go round. I love a glass of red wine in the evening while I am making dinner or reading. A cold afternoon feels cozy with a crochet hook and a cup of Earl Grey tea. Make it Cream of Earl Grey and I will have a second cup! Going for a walk by myself and having a little cocktail or wine and tapas and people watching is one of my favourite things to do when I need a good think.
All of these little moments make my days extra special, but if there is one thing I simply can’t do without, it is my morning coffee. Generally that is plural, but it is the first coffee that feels like a special ritual to me. The promise of that coffee is what gets me out of bed on tough days and I have even made myself go to bed by reminding myself that I will wake up to that special cup.
I can’t get to the page without it. I love to sit and write before I see or talk to anyone. Other than my cat’s morning food and meds nothing comes before my coffee. When I go to stay at a tea drinking friend’s place I bring my own because they don’t just understand coffee the way I do and chances are the same stale bag I bought during my visit last year is still waiting in the back of their freezer for me. Chances are they got rid of the makeshift sock bag and they don’t have any way to make it.
Now I can get creative in a pinch when there is no proper way to make coffee, but I have learned my lesson and I am likely to carry my mini mocha pot and enough fresh ground to get me through my visit. I love my cappuccino for my first coffee, but I can get by without the milk as long as that beautiful, bitter black brew can be obtained promptly upon waking.
What's your morning cuppa?