A voluntary blog hop.
I wrote this post before Christmas, but I never got around to publishing it. The holidays went by in a whirl of chaos, but one night I was baking and listening to Christmas music. My Favorite Things played and, being alone in the kitchen, I was able to pay attention and reflect on the lyrics.
2015 has been challenging for me and my loved ones, and I appreciated the message of this song. When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when shit hits the fan, remembering our favorite things is a way of practicing awareness and appreciation for ordinary miracles that usually get taken for granted. It’s about gratitude.
I’m going to list ten of my favorite things and encourage other bloggers to do the same. I won’t tag anyone. I know most of you are busy, but if you have time, take this idea and have fun with it. Most of us are grateful for our families, food on the table, roofs over our heads. Let’s try to dig deep for the minutiae. It’s harder than you think!
10 of My Favorite Things
- Dog ear smell. It’s gross, but addictive and strangely comforting. Dog paws smell great too. I sniff my dogs regularly for the soothing effect.
- Flushing toilets and Running Water. Life can be rough in Panama. Once we were without running water for two months. Luckily it was during the rainy season and I set buckets under the gutters to collect rainwater for flushing toilets and washing dishes. We had to drive 12 km to my mother-in-law’s house every few days to bathe. I can live without power, but living without water is hell. Don’t take your level of sanitation for granted.
- Pine needles. My house is surrounded by tall pine trees that sway in the wind. Sometimes it sounds like ocean waves. Sometimes it’s like a round of applause. Hundreds of thousands of little pine needles slide upon one another and crash together to make that sound. Like Siddhartha at the river, I feel like if I listen closely enough, the pine needles will tell me the secrets of the Universe.
- Dirt, I love you. We always gush over beautiful flowers and trees. We depend on our fruits, vegetables, and grain to survive. Rarely do we ever admire dirt. Without dirt, all the botanical beauty wouldn’t exists. Neither would food. Neither would us. Thank you dirt!
- Chicken Abortions. I heard this term for eggs in a bad horror movie. I eat eggs every morning. They are a nutritious, cheap source of protein that keeps me full. Thank you chickens for your lovely eggs. I think they just might be the perfect food.
- People Who Smile. Has a stranger ever looked directly at you and smiled? A real smile with teeth? How do you feel when that happens? Once in awhile, I’ll make eye contact with a cashier or old lady on the street and they’ll smile, and I realize how seldom people do that. It’s sad. So thanks to all those people who smile. I will try to remember to pass it along.
- Change in Acceptable Nail Polish Color. Remember when the only socially and professionally acceptable nail polish colors were in the red, pink, coral, and nude spectrums? If you wore green or black you were a freak. Now women can wear funky colors at any age. I’m rocking a muddy purple today. Loving it!
- Arm and Hammer Baking Soda Toothpaste and Whitestrips. There is nothing more effective for wine lovers and coffee drinkers than Arm and Hammer Baking Soda toothpaste along with the occasional Whitestrip treatment. It’s rare to find these products in Panama, so I stock up whenever I go back to the States. I’m a toothpaste smuggler.
- Baroque music. Having a crappy day? Put on Baroque music. I swear you can’t take the daily drama to heart when listening to Bach or Vivaldi. Behind the lurid beauty is a haughtiness that allows you to scoff at your problems–bitchslap them with your white glove, if you will. Such trifles! You will not deign to let any nonsense to upset you.
- Charming Men. My grandfathers were charmers. I snagged one of these old-school type charming men for myself. They are more prevalent in Latin America, but I don’t encounter many of them anymore. Are they going extinct? These are the handsome men who wink, who flatter, who flirt. Call me crazy, but I wonder if political correctness and sexual equality have prevented the new generations of males from growing up to be good old-fashioned charming devils.
So these are a few of my favorite things.
What are your favorite things?
Leave them in the comments section or post them on your blog and link back to me. I’ll tweet it out for you!
This is wonderful, Christa! I love how yourind works. I am definitely going to address this on my blog!
Please do! I’d love to see your answers.
1. Freedom all freedom in all forms – to be free to be who I am and who I am not!
2. My life, at every stage -an awsomem gift!
3. Natures bountiful beauty – our planet
4. Animals, all of them, especially my Sprout♡♡
5. My Amazon Prime, I get so much from their programs + free shipping 😉
6. Family, my family, all famlies!
7. The universe and it’s magical existence
8. God and his undeniable love for me
9. Music
10. My friendships
This year has been a strange one when it comes to my favorite things. things that were my favorite for years are now seen as bars set for me to be inspired by. While other things became much more meaningful this year because of Gods guidance.
1)God- God has brought me to an enormously amazing realization this year especially. I feel if I hadn’t had God through my life I wouldn’t be where I am today. It’s not a cold detached go to church type of God relationship I speak of though. It’s a friendship that has grown through the years.
2)Family- the amount of memories that I have been blessed enough to accumulate over the years through family experiences is a book itself. As I’m sure it is will all people for the most part. The ones I lost I long for now and I work hard to carry their beautiful light left from their legacies.
3)Legacy-we each leave one for history and my goal is to leave one that can touch people’s hearts enough to help all of us want to see God shining back at us through each other’s simple connective good deeds for the world.
4)Courage- it’s impossible to believe in love, experience love, overcome our fears and pain, believe in the impossible, dream further and wider than the cosmos can, to imagine hope, peace, and joy as something real without courage.
5)Peace-if I could share little slices of moments that I’ve felt during the most peaceful experiences in my life I would d it for anyone willing to try it out. To bring such a serene feeling to others is the most amazing gift we could offer one another.
6)Inspiration-when I’m inspired I feel as if I could move mountains literally with the spiritual zest that flows through. Sometimes with music, sometimes from a video, sometimes from research, sometimes just from God. My biggest hope is that I would be blessed enough to inspire those that gave me inspiration from their creativity.
7)Truth-when I read something that is true there’s no question in my bones that it is. When I read something that is false I almost instantly feel doubt flow into my thoughts. Truth is something amazingly powerful. It’s not filled to the brim with fear which is how most people advertise it. It’s real and filled with life. I’m talking about truth which hasn’t been known or available publicly. That type of truth sends shivers down my spine with how beautifully redeeming it is when compared to all the fictional tales it was believed to be.
8)Music-music changes the world or can and has. It tells stories, creates ideas, inspires through tone and feeling sometimes, doesn’t need vocals, to me music is closer than most things when one is trying to connect with God. Is love music or music love?
9)Love- all you need is love and love is all you need.
10)People- without people we wouldn’t be able to rise above our survivalism, tell stories, share pain, share inspiration, know what it feels like to be loved by more than yourself or the opposite, create a world with an entire race of individuals who have a shared heart aimed at making the world better by healing the world that is. Without people I wouldn’t be able to share my favorite things with you. But my hope is by sharing those things it might inspire you as well to get to know more people who have that shared heart, love music, who want to inspire others, who want to build a global family, who believe in the feeling of peace, who have the courage to share their vulnerabilities, who together want to leave a legacy and dreams behind for others to build and expand upon, and finally people who believe in God and can see God in all people across the globe, whether because of their own faith, experience, or the truth they discovered along the way.
Thank you for this post. I know it wasn’t conventional, but it felt good to share that with anyone who’s willing to read it.
God Bless
Mirror Living
I left a comment on CeeJae’s blog for you too. I love your positive energy. I’m always so doom and gloom about humanity. The way I see it, we’re still painfully stupid, but we do have some amazing qualities. We just need to cultivate the loftier ones and ditch the rest. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Thank you! I’m glad that you agree with me on this. We need to cultivate the beauty within our spirits imagination and ditch the selfish craftsmanship crafted malarky that keeps repeating itself through our world. That’s my goal. To free creativity from it’s shackles. Together we will make it happen!
I know most people here probably think this post is ancient history, but I went ahead with my blog post on it. As my thoughts progressed, I felt like it was important.
http://ceejae-devine.com/our-favorite-things-are-more-important-than-most-people-realize/
It IS important, and it’s always a good time to think about your favorite things 🙂
Charming men—enjoy them but do not fall in love.
It is only a matter of time before you will have the big fat broken heart, as you are not the only one they use their charm on.
I love random smilers and I especially love being the random smiler. I try, on my walk home through the city every night, to give some unsuspecting person a smile and more often than not, I get one in return. It feels so damn good and costs me nothing. Also, charming men – God, I love them. If you are lucky enough to meet one, revel in his attentions because like you said, they are a rare species these days. xx
You have a great smile. It must be infectious. And yes, charming men can be risky, but never boring.
My 10
1 Being in a boat or rv with the sound of heavy rain on roof.. Eyes half shut
2. Walking in water, puddles in the street, ocean, lake, pool, anywhere.
3. Formerly abused animals with a happy ending.
4. Doing something creative without distractions. Almost impossible. Ring ring, woof woof, yoohoo any body home, yes, pork chops for dinner, where is the, beep beep, mail lady please sign, help me with, car broke down can I have a ride, phone for you, oops lunch time, etc.
Then there is mental distractions, bills due, ugh finances, remember pills, appointments, company coming tomorrow, so many things to worry about, do this do that,and more etcs.
5.Being mesmerized watching the ocean. If not alone–I don’t care if you have to take your shoes back to K-Mart, Ruins my moment,
6. Stuffed artichokes for breakfast. My fav, Love the simplicity of it.
7. Being thankful my brain is odd, Normal would make me crazy
8. Walking my dog at 3am, moon, stars, warm breeze, no one around, SILENCE
9. Living in Florida with naked arms and legs in February. Northerners will get this.
10, Loving and hating life.
Need an 11. PEACE
You are definitely right as to Latin American Men… 😃 Best wishes. Aquileana ⭐️
And they can dance 🎩💃🏻💋
1. ocean smells 2. the texture of a cat’s tongue 3. the clean, tart smell of lemons, 4. the splash of water spray while jet skiing 4. sitting in front of a fire 5. college football season 6. purring cats 7. sinking into the bed at night and drifting asleep 8. waking up with no alarm clock ring 9. hot baths 10. foot massages
I agree on all of those things… except college football.
Cheers to people smiling, looking up from their phones!
Amen to that!
Now I’m off to put on some Baroque music!
Do it! Pretend you’re in a period film, recline on your chaise, and just be fabulous.