The Little Things that Bring Me Joy... - A Wendy Post

"The ability to take pleasure in one's life is a skill and is a kind of

intelligence.  So intelligence is a hard thing to evaluate and it manifests 

itself in so many different ways.  I do think the ability to know how 

to live a life and not be miserable is a sign of that."  -Todd Solondz 

“To sew is to pray. Men don't understand this. They see the whole but they don't see the stitches. They don't see the speech of the creator in the work of the needle. We mend. We women turn things inside out and set things right. We salvage what we can of human garments and piece the rest into blankets. Sometimes our stitches stutter and slow. Only a woman's eyes can tell. Other times, the tension in the stitches might be too tight because of tears, but only we know what emotion went into the making. Only women can hear the prayer.” 
― Louise Erdrich, 

I have spoken with enough women and enough mothers to know that very often moms & women don't have outside interests, outside of work & their homes.  Most hobbies cost money.  They take time.  They often require support from your spouse and/or family.  

What do you enjoy doing?  

Or... what do you think you may enjoy doing, but have never had the chance to try?

Not to sound all Oprah-ish, but sometimes the things we enjoyed in our 20's are not what we enjoy in our 30's.  (I assume this illustration goes on, but I haven't quite reached 40 - yet!)  We are growing and changing and increasing in our ability to weed through what we actually, truly like & not just what we were exposed to as kids or someone else thought we should like.  

I love hearing my peers & women older than me share about tried-and-true favorite hobbies/skills and new ventures.  It's very inspiring to hear.  

I love that God made each and every one of us unique!  We are interested in different things.  Take any set of siblings & it is so interesting to see how varied their interests are.  My older brother always loved fantasy books.  Ick!  I hate fantasy!  And now I have two children who both love fantasy books.  

Realistically, budget concerns can put a damper on some hobby choices you would like to try.  

But I will bet there are a lot of things you can still look in to.  

As women, life can be hard.  As mothers, life can seem like it sucks us dry & even though I count mothering as my most fulfilling life calling & what I want more than anything & also what I enjoy, there are days when I look for some sign of Wendy-ness  ,(that's me!), some sign of who I am, not because I am someone's wife or someone's mother but because I am me.

Here is where these little things,

these hobbies,

these outside interests,

some goals come in.  

They can really bring a lot of JOY.  

Moms, Women ~JOY!

(And sometimes joy can bring peace and then comes hope and life is just better that way.)

So - What are the Little Things for you?

What do you already do/enjoy that brings you joy?

Is there something new to try?

It is worth it!

Some of my Joy-Givers:

~Cooking, Canning, Baking

~Children's Literature

~Hiking

~Kayaking

~Snowshoeing

~Fishing

~Walking

~Camping

~Planning Events

~Knitting

~My farm animals, (for the most part!)