We Feel it A Pleasure

This week I had a fun juxtaposition of ideas. My theme for this year is Fear Not, which had some great scriptures to go with it this week in Doctrine and Covenants 6. I am doing a 30 day fear fast, if anyone wants to join me. All it involves is noticing when your body starts to clench and feel worry or fear and then refuse to take part in that. Just tell yourself you can worry later. Just not for these 30 days. I have been a worrier from a young age, and it is a wonderful thing to find you can just choose to not indulge in fear. It's not an emotion that serves me well very often, if ever.

However, I found the thing to replace it with this week! I listened to a podcast about delight, and I thought,  "THIS is my thing." This is what I should search out instead of fear. Look for the delight. Look for the things that really give you that jolt of pleasure. Surely this is a pathway to joy.  One of the best things about looking for delight is that it reminds me of some of my favorite people.  My mom was excellent at this, and thinking of her when I try to do this is a particular delight. Karen is good at delight. Willa is good at delight. And Kirsta is really good at it too. I want to be better at finding and feeling delight. Here are some my my things. I'm particularly tickled that I have a day dedicated to most of them, since I am the teacher right now.

1. The things my kids say and do:

Griffin: "I am a clam and the world is my oyster." I'm also secretly delighted that he loves geography and sneaks up to his room with the globe to learn more about where things are. Right now he is a Canadaphile.

2. Mondays are library days. I adore libraries. Even though I am having trouble being a voracious reader these days (you know, cognitive decline associated with menopause and all...), I still just love being in the library. Our library won't let us sit down right now, but we can go in and see the books and check them out. And we still get our mid-century building right now. They are thinking of replacing it, so I need to enjoy it as much as I can while it is still half a mile from my house.

2. Music. Hong Hong is such a wonderful teacher, and my kids are learning to play music from her on Tuesdays. And I have Spotify, which means I can listen to any music I want pretty much any time. 

3. Art. Wednesday Griff and Eve have an art class and get to make projects. And art is available everywhere these days. 

4. Move it. We have been going to the park on Thursdays no matter what the weather is. This time we had icicles to play with. They were wonderful wands and pleasant popsicles. I also make a point of moving my body every day, which improves my mood substantially.

5. Service. This week we went and helped with a food distribution at a community center associated with a downtown Baptist church. It was one of the golden parts of the week. We loved it.

7. Wielding power for good. I decided to make Griffin's day by letting him play games on my car's screen while we waited for friends. I need to use my powers for good to make his day more often.

8. The beauty of the earth. Friday is our day for hikes this semester. With friends. It was gorgeous and warm enough to melt the snow and create some terrific mud by the time we left.

This was the point the kids decided the waterfall WAS the path. It was also when we got sort of lost.
I'm sure the two are unrelated.

9. Good food. Alan decided to make Evie's day by making her a milkshake. She had never had one before, so this was really just part of her education. Meanwhile I made the best vegan hot chocolate ever. (Griff decided mine was better than Andre's after I tried it on the snowy park day.)

 10. The gospel. It really is a great cause to rejoice in!

11. Grandbabies!  Aren't they the cutest things you've seen this week?

Juliet sent me a business letter from her office this week.