Practicing contentment is something that can be difficult for us especially here in North America where we are bombarded with voices telling us to be discontent. It's called advertising and it continuously tries to get into our hearts and minds telling us we need bigger, better, more and new. The economy thrives on us being discontent with where we are in life and what we have or have not. Contentment is a mindset that we need to practice and choose on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. The key to contentment? Well first off is to quite watching and reading all the adds that tell us how we should be living. Second is learning to look for our everyday blessings and be grateful and thankful for them which leads us to realize all that we really do have. Join us in sharing 5 of your favorites from the last week.
~ fresh air ~ between sitting inside all day working on an online portion of a course I need to take and working on the computer all day I needed to change my view. So I grabbed Tux, threw on my winter outerwear and headed outside to catch the last of the sun for the day. It's still cold here, hovering around the freezing mark but it was lovely outside. No wind, the air was crisp and fresh and the sun peeked out now and again. The fresh air cleared my overworked brain and the movement felt great after sitting all day. Thankful for the blessing of a lovely day to take a walk.
~ clean carpets ~ Hubby has been working hard shampooing all the carpets upstairs. They look and feel brand new again. I'm thankful for all his hard work doing it on his days off.
~ when food takes you right back to childhood ~ there are some foods that I seem to rarely have but that I love and take me instantly right back to childhood. One of those is something my Mom used to give us for lunch on Good Friday. I'm sure we had it other times but it's aGrowing up Catholic, my parents observed the no meat on Good Friday tradition. So for supper we always had fish, and for lunch Mom would make us a plate of cottage cheese. She'd add apple slices so that there was four quadrants of cottage cheese and then she'd put drained fruit cocktail on the cottage cheese. She'd serve it to us with toast and butter. I loved it as a kid and I still love it now. I don't have it often but hubby but a 3 pack of cottage cheese at C*stco and I just got a craving for it. I don't buy fruit cocktail anymore but I had strawberries and blueberries and that first bite of buttered toast and cottage cheese and fruit just bought back all the warm cozy feelings of being a kid. I'm thankful for traditions that my parents gave us, even in such a small thing, that brings warmth and nostalgia.
~ coffee and talk with a friend ~ though we don't get to see each other often, spending time with this friend is so refreshing. We pick up as if no time has passed and it's just easy being in her company. I'm thankful for a good friendship where I can be myself.
~ my local library ~ love my library. I love spending time in there looking for books. It's a time I relax and just enjoy. I love that once again they are offering memberships for free this year and making it accessible for everyone. I love that I can request books for them to purchase, put books on hold online. The library is a great blessing in my life and I've loved it since I got my very first library card when I was about 7 years old.
What are the blessings you are thankful for this week?