Everything's taking a calm and happy plod in to the warmer weather, which on it's own, obviously, brings contentment.
So I was thinking about the ingredients for being content. I did some reading. Turns out the post I thought about writing has been written about a zillion times. I still took myself through writing it in my head. I thought about a list, a Contentment Checklist. It would include good food, creative outlets, down time, exercise, sleep. I thought about a Make Me Happy Mantra. Some composition of the words confidence, strength, acceptance, gratitude... Blah. (And a reasonable sized cringe.)
What about maintaining calm? Staying contented? I always think a part of who we all are is how we strive. We move. We grow. Constantly.
We tirelessly ask "what's next?" "now what?"
So much of growing babies and nurturing a family is about chugging along, doing the same thing you did yesterday, just being. Sometimes I think the contrast of striving for the next chapter against remaining as we are is a lot of the root cause of difficulty being a Mum.
I had a ballet teacher once who told me that even standing still the correct way should be hard work. He said a mouthful there…
With this in mind I've taken on a little project. Something for my "now what?" to snack on. Taking my own advice from when I used to constantly tell students to start with what they love, they will be good and work hard at what they love and the rest will follow.
I love taking pictures. I'm starting here. A Facebook page. See if people "Like" me.
Then I realise, when I find myself too shy to share this with my Facebook friends, how frightening sharing something you create is. What an intimate thing your creativity is. How vulnerable it feels putting something you invested time, thought and pride in to. There's a stroppy teenager in us all who wants screw up their Maths homework and shout "yeah well I don't even care it's s&%@ because Maths is stuuuupid anyway!"
Lesson
Be brave. I want her to be brave. I want her to be inspired to try new things. It needs to start with me. *Gulp*
Our week... Some of the aforementioned calm, contentment and warmer weather...
Love that ginger baby!! So, so cute! You are right - it's so hard to share your creative stuff, even with the people who love you. What if they don't like it? What if they don't understand it? What if they change their mind about me? Eventually, you just walk out on the precipice and find contentment there.
ReplyDeleteStopping in from the Raising Imperfection hop!
Oh goodness, I feel like you are in my head sometimes. Maybe it is because our girls are so close in age and we go through these stages with them.
ReplyDeleteI signed Violet up for gymnastics because I want her to be brave and try new things even though I have horrible anxiety being in new situations. I did it for her, because I want her to be better.
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Leslie
I can't believe how big she is getting. Contentment is such a tricky thing. We all go through these feelings regardless of the age of our children.
ReplyDeleteI am SO happy the warm weather has decided to come for you all!
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