January 31st - Embrace Joyful Simplicities

"Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering 
and so each year we need all the more 
to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities."

-Woman's Home Companion, December 1935 

I think somehow this has been lost to many of us. 

Sarah has some great things to say on the subject today.

Start quote

"As we become curators of our own contentment on the Simple Abundance path, one of the great payoffs is that we start to seek peace and comfort in the 
joyful simplicities. 

Little things begin to mean a lot to us.

Joyful simplicities nourish body and soul by engaging our senses. 
They teach us how to live in the present moment. 
Life comes together when we seek out the Sublime in the ordinary. 

...

We all have days in our lives that are marked by 
great moments of rejoicing and celebration...

but life is not an endless round of cake and champagne. 

There's a lot of drudgery to most of our days...

To keep our daily round from being all drudgery, 
we've got to savor the art of the small; 
discovering diminutive delights that bring us peace and pleasure."
End Quote


I feel like today is a summary of January in a way. 

I thought of something as I searched for peace and pleasure on lds.org, I thought how "small and simple things are great things brought to pass"...but the next part says that "and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." -BOM 

I think a lot of people may scoff and take for granted what Sarah has said, what the gospel teaches, because it is simple. This is not rocket science. 

But I know that it works. 

One of those small things that sometimes will confound is the atonement. I liked this talk, the gist is you can find personal peace when you're righteous, just like you can find peace when you are true to your authentic self, and find peace when you are finding joy in the little things. 

Kinda cool how it all flows together, huh.



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Gratitude Journal
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1) Exercise. I don't exercise on my own, I can never make myself exert the effort. But in a group I can at least try, and every week I get a little stronger. Exercise is awesome.

2) My body. The human body is an amazing thing. I can do so much, and feel so much, it's almost incomprehensible. 

3) My kids. They were almost little angels today. I loved spending time with them, playing at the park, cuddles after nap time, putting puzzles together and trying to teach Jacob to ride a bike with training wheels and Chase to ride the tricycle. Kids are fun. 

4) Goals. I had a lot of goals today, nothing large, just simple things like get dinner ready on time and finish that pile of laundry. And it took me until 10 but I did it. And not only did I accomplish my goals, I was a pretty good mom today and I'm getting to bed at a decent hour. What What?!

5) Good friends. There really isn't much else to say. I am so blessed to have such good friends, and that most of them have kids so we can all go to the park together. 

Life is good.