A Collection of Delights
I adore Ross Gay’s essay collections The Book of Delights and The Book of (More) Delights. I love them so much that I find myself reading favorite passages aloud to my family, and once I openly wept while reading at the public pool. I love these books so much.
His writing style and ability to find joy in small moments has been an inspiration to me in my own life and my journaling practice. I want to start sharing regularly a list of a handful of things that have brought me delight recently.
I’m calling these recurring posts A Collection of Delights.
A Collection of Delights:
Over the past couple of weeks my 7- and 10-year-olds have been enjoying their swimming lessons at a local outdoor pool. One morning as I sat during their lesson and read my book (The Light Pirate), every couple of minutes I would glance up and look around the pool to see how my kids were doing in their classes. Looking over the veritable sea of kids jumping, bouncing, bobbing up and down in the water.
I watched them all bouncing in their brightly colored swimming suits with wet hair plastered to their heads and goofy looking goggles on their faces. Mostly they were all grinning and hopping and bouncing, though one toddler was screaming in terror.
Their constant movement in the sunshine of a summer morning delighted me.
One of my favorite parts of this job I've created for myself is attending festivals. I love visiting with customers in my booth, encouraging people who want to try embroidery to feel like they can do this art that I love.
Last week I was able to attend The Lavender Festival which has the added benefits of being close to home, run by a very dear friend of mine, and in a gorgeous location, surrounding their lavender field. There is live music and lots of opportunities for me to share what I love and connect with people. I met repeat customers from last year and made new friends both in the other vendors and people who came to visit my booth. Those connections are some of the most delightful parts of this work that I do.
After the busiest 6 weeks possibly ever in our lives I declared the Sunday following our last big event a rest day. Resting is not something I excel at, but it is something I'm working on. I declared my goals for the day were to read an entire book, take a nap and work on my knitting project, which often takes a backseat to projects needed for markets and festivals. I read the entirety of The Summer Book which I’ve been saving for this occasion. I knitted a bit and we all just lazed about together. There were lego creations and drawing in sketchbooks and it was exactly as delightful as I’d hoped it would be.
On My Desk:
Tiny wool + embroidery landscape paintings.
Art journaling, always.
A new multiple panel piece that I’ll be submitting to a local art gallery for an upcoming show; I’ll share more as it progresses.
Beginning to prepare for fall and holiday markets later in the year.
Around Here
Reading:
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger This near-future dystopian novel took me by surprise a little. It was different than I expected, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Unlikely friendships, characters you grow to love, an epic journey. I loved it.
The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson I did not expect a book about feathers to be so fascinating but it absolutely was. I find delight in learning about other people’s hobbies. People get so into the things they love. This book illustrates that so well, though definitely to a higher degree since actual crimes were committed.
Watching: We’re almost done with Trying on AppleTV and I’m not sure what to feel about that. It’s been the best thing we’ve watched in a long time.
Listening: My kids have been very into the Into the Woods soundtrack lately, so that’s frequently playing somewhere in the house.
Dabbling in: Hand quilting! I’ve been saving a quilting project as an incentive for finishing up some recent deadlines and it’s finally the time to dive in!
On YouTube: Lake Powell Quilt
In the House/Yard: We’ve been revamping some parts of the yard: I divided some irises this week, spreading them around in our flower beds and sharing some with friends. I’m planting lavender later today. Our vegetable garden is coming along, any day now we’ll have the first tomato which I look forward to all year.
Here’s to making the time for the things we love to do!
Heidi
