Finding the extraordinary within the ordinary

A little less than a mile from our house there is a small pond. It isn’t heavily wooded and in part it actually meets up with the highway which is less than idyllic. However, to our 3 year old, this place is heaven. My husband has taken walks with her there at least twice a week since she turned two. It is their special place. Most of the time an invitation gets extended to me and we take the mile walk down there as a family. More recently she wants me to join in as she wants her baby sister to come. She knows wherever the baby goes, mom goes too.

Once we are at her special pond we have an itinerary of things we need to do! Find as many ducks as possible, look for blackberries (a task that is pretty disappointing in December), try and find a blue herron, and pick whatever wildflowers are blooming… even if they are really just weeds. In these moments, I forget that we are primarily housebound and unable to live our lives as we once did. I have found it much easier to enjoy these moments than I have in years prior. I was always so busy before the pandemic that I wasn’t able to slow down to stop and truly enjoy my life in small joyful details. I mind was filled with things I hadn’t completed yet that day, or calls from clients I hadn’t returned, this estimate and that design layout. Forcing me to stop everything has brought a new sense of enjoyment.

Finding small joys that is already around you in the tiniest of details is a very simple way to cultivate happiness within your daily life. Even if its only 15 minutes. You just have to know how to shift your perspective, leave the phone at home, and think like a 3 year old.