I’ve been challenging myself to find joy in the mundane. It’s easy to be joyful which things are going well and lining up to your expectations and desires . But what about when you are thrown a curve ball? I think it’s safe to say that the whole world has been thrown a curve ball this year.
I’ve seen the worst of humanity responding by looting while others are hoarding toilet paper and sanitizing wipes and upselling them . ( I have yet to find any Lysol wipes in any of our stores here.) But I’ve also seen the best of humanity. People are helping their neighbours, talented musicians and singers are sharing their melodies and lyrics with us online, churches are reconfiguring their services to reach their congregations and reaching into the communities with help . And of course there are the sewers who are using those stashes to make face masks, scrub bags and scrub hats for the front line workers. Every one of my quilting friends who is contributing to these projects has expressed the greatest joy at being able to help . That’s how I feel too!
I have been pulling out my fat quarters and enjoying making them into something helpful for someone else . There is lots of joy in my sewing room right now.
I’ve also heard of a resurgence of practical skills with everything from gardening/growing veggies to baking bread . Have you tried to find yeast or flour in your grocery store? I have always loved baking bread and earlier this year I scored a great breadmaker at a garage sale for $2.00 . Since then I’ve been baking bread almost every week. I mix it in the breadmaker then shape the loaf and bake it in the oven. I currently have a loaf in the oven right now and it’s starting to smell pretty good in my house .
New to me this year is the attempt to grow some veggies . I may be known for the calluses on my quilting fingers, but not so much for having a green thumb. But I’m devoting some energy and time to learning some tricks in the hopes that I can develop some skill in this department . I’m finding joy in this little sprout of celery that I am growing from the end of the last stalk we bought. Life! A little sprout! Yippee!
I’m also finding joy in bringing order to my house. I make no bones about my dislike for paper. It’s a necessary evil in our lives but there’s not an even an ounce of me that enjoys working with it. When I had this realization I gave up card making. I worked with paper all day long and I sure didn’t want to play with it at night. But I digress…
I’ve been working on one room at a time. The one I was dreading was the office because of … PAPER!! Anyway, yesterday I decided (with a gentle push from my daughter who had just done a clean sweep of her place) that it was time I attacked the office. And wouldn’t you know it…I found joy in scanning all these papers and then shredding them. I’m quite shocked actually. I absolutely love my ScanSnap scanner by Fujitsu. It’s worth every penny. My trusty shredder is a heavier duty one from Staples and it’s doing a fine job too.
I made some headway yesterday as evidenced by all the confetti I created and am hoping to wrap up this portion of the office work today/tonight. I’m going to reward myself with some nice red wine when this is done. There is joy in finally getting that job done that you’ve been dreading. I didn’t expect to find joy in the office, but there it was!
And of course when the office is tackled I will go pet some fabric, work on a UFO or on more caps, masks or scrub bags. The need continues and so we will keep sewing. And I know I will find joy there.
I hope you will also find some joy in the everyday things you find yourself doing while quarantined at home.
Until next time!
Mavis
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