Do something!

August 29, 2021

The best way I know of to create joy in my life is to do something. In my world it doesn’t even matter what I do as long as I am planning what I am going to do, or doing it. Moving my body is great (motion is lotion). In the last week I have created joy in my life by swimming, kayaking, sewing a purse and a beach bag, harvesting from our garden, and making meals based on our harvest. I have also shared meals and joy-filled times with our friends who have been living with us. It has been a blessing to learn to live with others in a relatively small space (our 1400 ft2 house is now being shared by 6 people instead of 3). Larger projects have included looking for vacant land to build on in Nova Scotia and planning my upcoming trip to Prince Edward Island (I am currently in a hotel and fly out tomorrow morning). Finally, I also attended our Church’s semi-annual Stake Conference. Other activities that might not excite you are attending numerous medical appointments: two dental appointments, a chiropractic appointment and a physiotherapist appointment. My activities have not only met my basic needs for physical, mental and spiritual health, but they have also been interesting and exciting. I am excited about medical appointments because I can finally go and I can get things fixed that need to be fixed. I loved kayaking last weekend, but because we got further than ever before on a river we regularly kayak and I pushed myself too far – a sore hip and shoulder were the result. Physiotherapist appointments are keeping me from surgery and teaching me to heal myself. I am grateful that once again we can go and see medical professionals to help us take care of our bodies.

We have had a lot of salads this year, bean salads, kale salads, kale slaw, cucumber salads, lettuce salads, etc. – all delicious and all the result of garden tending and google searches for great recipes. Thank-you those of you who have food blogs, you keep my family loving our meals.

The purse and beach bag I made this week were both created using fabric I designed by having photos I have taken printed on them. Thanks to the internet and people making their dreams come true by running their businesses online, people like me can either order fabric designed by others, or upload our own designs and have them printed on fabric of our choice for our own projects. In my case I uploaded a classic beach dune photo I took on Prince Edward Island in 2015 to Spoonflower (I get nothing for recommending them, but they do a great job turning my photos into fabric) and created two beach bags with it, one for my girlfriend on her retirement (because we went on that trip together AND during Covid she bought a cottage on Prince Edward Island – she owned it for 10 months before she was able to go there to see it). My purse design was made with a photo of the lilacs that I planted in our yard a few years ago. Lilacs are my favourite flower and so this makes a perfect Spring/Summer purse for me.

What do all of these activities have in common? I had to dream them up before I actually created them. I trusted that I could do what I wanted to do and so, step by step I did them!

Do you know the significance of today? Today is August 29, 2021. That is 9 more big sleeps until my girlfriend Suzie and I do not go back to school. Since the age of 4 there are only 3 first days of school that I have not been in school, two of them were the years between my bachelor’s degree and my teaching degree and the third was when I was on maternity leave after having my second child. September 7th, 2021 will be the fourth. What an exciting countdown!

So, what do we have planned?

Tomorrow I fly to Prince Edward Island. Why there? Well, this is the best part, it is actually an adapted dream, made for our times. For years my girlfriend and I planned on going to a Caribbean country for the start of the school year after we retired. On the first day of school I visualized that we would sit on the beach with a glass of bubbly (non-alcoholic – neither of us drink) and toast everyone going back on the first day of school. We are not making fun of them, nor are we making light of this, we are wishing them well on their journey, a journey we both enjoyed for 30 years! I loved learning and growing with my students and my teachers each year and wish them all the very best. I wish us the best as well and so we will celebrate by spending our day touring the west coast of Prince Edward Island and then spending the night at the West Point Lighthouse Inn! I do not feel we are settling for the East Coast when we had originally planned on going to the Carribean. We cannot live in the world of “might have beens” if we want to be happy. I love the East Coast, as does Suzie. She has a cottage there now, which she did not have when we originally visualized our retirement toast. This will be a wonderful celebration for both of us!

My first wish for you as you move forward in your life, is to do something every day to create joy for your life and for the lives of your family members!

My second wish for you is that you start to observe yourself and all that you are able to do each day that at one time might not have been easy for you. If you can do those things then why not believe in your ability to make your current big dream come true? All journeys begin with one step and I am willing to bet that you have already taken several steps in the direction of your dream by learning things you need to know to be able to go there. Decide today to take your next step on that journey.

Cheers!

Velvet