R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts
“ Much of enjoying life is in the details. Handling daily tasks well and thoroughly affects how we feel, our happiness and the overall quality of our lives.” ~Alexandra Stoddard in her book, Living A Beautiful Life – 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty and Joy to Every Day of Your Life
I love the book Living a Beautiful Life. It encourages me to do the little things every day that make life more pleasurable and more delightful to the senses. The author, Alexander Stoddard believes that we should live life with a mindfulness of the small things. Things like having your pantry neat and in order and buying flowers for your home every week or having bill paying supplies all in a basket ready to go. Life is better when you have things around that make your life more calm, orderly and more appealing to all the senses. Having daily rituals that nourish you gives your mind freedom to think of bigger things … you aren’t stressing out trying to find the gloves you need if you have a pretty wicker basket on the shelf in your coat closet for all the gloves; bath time becomes a mini-vacation if you have fragrant soaps, bath oils and your favorite towels close by. Pay attention to your personal space, your personal rituals. My daughter came over tonight to help me organize my front storage closet. Before she came, it was a jumble and I felt tense every time I opened that door. Now that she’s finished, tablecloths are all together; napkins in a wicker basket; all the vases in one area. And we found some things I thought were lost forever. Order creates freedom and a sense of comfort, contentment and control. Never is life more disorderly than during a divorce, so make the time to get your physical space in order. That ordering process gives you something worthwhile to do and makes you feel better, too. The big things start falling into place when you consistently take care of all of those little daily things with grace and a sense of their deeper significance in the quality of your life.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little, can be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will make it so that also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10 (NIV)
