Journaling #4.

In the next several weeks, I will be sharing some of the journaling exercises from Sara Avant Stover’s The Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life, a guide to returning to “daily, seasonal, and yearly rhythms of nature” in order to regain a healthy body and spirit.

Exercise #4 (page 136)

Summertime musings – brainstorm concrete ways that you can bring more simple pleasures into your days this summer. What really makes you come alive? What did you love to do as a young girl at this time of year?

• Quality outdoor pool time.
• Making and enjoying chicken with Dad’s barbecue sauce.
• Attending a baseball game or two at a stadium.
• Cooling off in a movie theater, watching summer releases.
• Herbal iced tea.
• Catching fireflies (back in the Midwest).
• Wearing sandals, showing off painted and pedicured toenails.
• Dining outside.
• Sleeping on top of the covers to keep cool.
• Playing volleyball in sand.
• Shortcake with freshly picked strawberries.
• June wildflowers up in the mountains.
• Thunderstorms – not severe, just enough for a few moments of a lightning show.
• Corn-on-the-cob.
• Water balloon fights.
• Taking cats out on leashes to enjoy the warm summer air.
• Lake vacations, complete with swimming in the fresh water (and hopefully avoiding leeches) and fishing for that evening’s dinner (as long as the cleaning of the fish is done by someone else).
• Late sunsets.
• Venetian night in Chicago.
• Outdoor performances of Shakespeare Festival in Boulder.