For many years, back in the heyday of blogging, I wrote a daily post that I called my “Daily 5”. Though it was rarely only five items, it was always multiples of 5, and it was always a list of things from that particular day that had made me smile. You see, I’d heard somewhere that a practice of making a gratitude list had been shown through research to have roughly the same effect on your brain chemistry that a mild antidepressant does, and I was in the throes of deep depression and desperate enough to give it a try. But gratitude felt big and nebulous – hard to come by in the darkness of those days – so I made it smaller. I made a list of things that had brought a smile to my face each day, sometimes struggling to hit five items, sometimes repeating the same item or two for multiple days, because my life was moving at the snail’s pace of mental illness, and things rarely changed quickly.
These days, I tell that story to some of my therapy clients, adding in details about how the things that made the list on a given day could be simple. I give the example of my hot pink crocs. Those were the days when crocs were “in” for the first time, and for Christmas I had asked for a pair of crocs to wear around the house as slippers. My middle brother took this seriously, but, failing to read my mind, which very much had a nice plain black pair in mind, bought me a hot pink pair. It took a minute, but the ridiculousness of that gift, the color of which was more suited to my brother’s personality at the time than mine, never failed to make me smile when I’d catch sight of them. All these years later, I still wear them from time to time as garden shoes, and they still make me smile. I tell my clients the fast version of this story, and then I challenge them to make a list for a bit – keep it in a notebook or the notes app on their phone – and count smiles, even if they only collect 1 or 2 a day.
I was thinking of that today, as I thought about making a list style post. Today’s list isn’t so much a list of smiles or gratitudes, though I still collect those as precious. Today’s list is more of a “top of mind” sort of list. I make no guarantees to show up here daily with lists, but every so often I want to make a list of 5, so here’s today’s top of mind thoughts.
- On this rainy Calgary day, I’m praying for two different people who are dear to me, both of whom have loved ones scheduled to have heart surgeries today. As I was writing the introduction to this list, I got a message that one of the procedures has been bumped (the joys of Alberta’s broken healthcare), but still I pray. I’m holding in prayer the people I love, and I’m holding in prayer those who are patients, and all those who love them.
- A little treat goes a long way. I was feeling stir crazy in my house this afternoon, but have been trying not to engage in my favorite pastime of window shopping, since I’m not particularly good at sticking to the window part of the description, and often come home with things I’d not intended to buy. In a quest to be more intentional with my spending, and the ongoing quest to revamp my finances, I’m trying not to add too much temptation to the list. But today, feeling stir crazy, I decided to drive to a different dollar store than I usually go to, and walk every aisle in the store. I managed to come out with several things I actually needed, plus a few treats, and spend less than $12. And listening to a podcast while driving home and eating one of those treats was the perfect balm to my cabin fever.
- I’ve very much been on an audiobook kick this week. While that’s not unusual for me, instead of listening only for an hour here or there while I drive or do a bit of cleaning, I’ve been listening for hours at a time. It’s bumped my book count for the month up, but has been so lovely as I’ve played a game on my phone, or cleaned or puttered around my house. I’ve lost myself in other worlds, and loved it.
- I started reading the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament last night. My faith is still very much in flux, but the Gospels particularly are one of the few firm places in that journey. I listen through a recording of the Gospels each month, in a variety of Bible versions throughout the year, but as I’m trying to find more places of firm footing, I decided to pull out the copy of the First Nations Version New Testament and give it a try. I’ve only read a few chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, but I’m loving the fresh eyes this unfamiliar translation is creating towards the text.
- And finally, because I know you’re all desperately wanting an update, the first little treat I bought for my read my shelves challenge, the “no bleed” highlighters, actually don’t bleed! I’ve used one of them on the first four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, and I’m so impressed that the color has not bled through the thin Bible paper pages! Woohoo for highlighters that will improve my ability to annotate books and Bibles to my heart’s content!
And, just because I can, another quick 5 – 5 things making me smile today:
- Nerds gummy clusters
- No bleed highlighters
- Whatsapp for talking to far away dear ones
- Audible audiobooks and my past penchant for buying a lot of said audiobooks, which is feeding my current appetite to listen
- Cozy fantasy novels with some form of happily ever after ending
Lisa From Canada 