The Act of Enjoying Life

I think enjoying life is a definite and intentional act. Sometimes we get ‘caught up’ in everything going on around us from work, to car trouble, to events that we sometimes forget to step back, look at our life and really appreciate it.

Well today I decided, after reading a wonderful post from my cousin Elise on her blog, Rumble Ramble , that I was going to really change my outlook. Lately I’ve been working overtime, feeling sick and, in general, getting caught up with things going on around me and because I haven’t really been focusing on appreciating things I really just haven’t appreciated them.

I read a book the other day, that wasn’t a quality book, but illustrated a great point to me. In the book, the main character worked in a high position job with opportunity to move up that gave her financial security. She loved that security but through a series of events she ended up realizing that working at something you love, earning enough money to take care of what you need to,  surrounding yourself with friends and family who love you and support you and trusting Christ with the rest is the only type of security where you actually feel secure. If you trust in your job to give you security you’ll always be under the stress of knowing that if you lose it, you lose everything.

Family is a huge part of enjoying life. The great thing about getting older is that you circle of support gets larger all the time. First, you start out with your immediate family around you who love you and nurture you (hopefully). As you get a little older you branch out to having close friends as well. Once you get married you have whole new family with your spouses side that love and support you (hopefully) and then, you and your husband become a family as well and you can watch your siblings also marry and have children. So the longer you live, the stronger your support network gets and the more potential you have to really enjoy your life.

Contentment is another wonderful part of enjoying life. If you are constantly yearning for things then you can’t ever truly be happy because there will always be that next thing you want. The older I get the easier it is to be content. I don’t feel the need to wear trendy clothes bought all the time or have the latest bag.  When I began to love gardening that brought alot of contentment because there’s something very therapeutic about working with plants, dirt, sun and rain, which are things that are out of your control. You can spend endless hours doing peaceful and calm work that really humbles the soul because no matter what you do the miracle of growing happens somehow. It’s incredible. Being content also frees up space in your mind and heart for people. When you stop focusing on material things you can start focusing on relationships.

Pleasure in the simple little things helps bring so much enjoyment.  Whether it’s a cup of tea, an hour with a good book, a great song or being smiled at by a stranger the little things are constantly waiting to be noticed. They’re all around all of us  no matter what and in a world of excess can be easily lost.  However, all these little reminders that life is good are there to be noticed and to pull us from our busy lives for a moment.  We have to actually live in that moment and enjoy it as it happens. Once I was walking to our local coffee shop in early fall when the leaves were turning and I noticed one very large, very colorful flower blooming on a low branch of a Magnolia tree. It was so out of place and alone that it made my heart jump with excitement but also gave me a rush of emotion because of it’s beauty as if it had been set there in front of me to be admired. I took a photo of it with the sun shining brightly from one side and a huge thunder storm darkening the sky on the other. That type of moment sticks. Even though it was small.

Humility, love, contentment and faith help us persevere through trials that inevitably come, brings us joy in the simple things and lifts our quality of life sky high. In our weekly bible study we keep coming up against verses that talk about love and I think it’s the at the base of all these things. So I, myself, like my wonderful cousin Elise, want a second chance at focusing on these things and renewing my life again.

Question: What brings you joy in your life?