I was recently challenged to make a love list. The idea is that throughout the day you write down all the things that you encounter and love. By doing so, you turn your focus toward the positive aspects in your life, leaving no room for the negative. This cultivation of optimism, it’s said, leaves you with more energy, gets your creative juices flowing and helps you to begin attracting even more of the things you love into your life.
This time of year, when we’re as apt to complain about the weather as we are about our March Madness brackets, a cognizant focus on love is a good thing. It fosters hope and warmth. It gets us excited about the journey ahead. We may even inadvertently bless others in an outpouring of our own emotional wealth. Love lists don’t have to include grandiose gestures and YouTube worthy displays of affection. They can be simple bits of gratitude for the small pleasures that grace our farms and homesteads.
I’d like to share a peek at the love list I’ve started.
- more than 15 lemon buds on my Meyer lemon tree
- accidental mead fermented from a homemade cough syrup
- my cat’s cuddles and purrs
- 70 degree days in March
- homemade meals shared with good friends
- out-of town family visitors
- meeting my friends’ newborn babies
- receiving summer wedding announcements
- a close-knit group to laugh with and learn from
- shoulder massage from my beau
- a bookshelf full of good reads
- hot showers
- seedlings that forgave me when I forgot to water them
- farm-fresh eggs for breakfast
- funny photos from last season on the farm
- the perfect cup of hot cocoa
- my new chicken mug
Thankfully this is just a selection, and I know more acts of love are just around the corner. Have you started a love list, too? What things have you added?
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