Participants in “Write 31 Days” pledge to write for 30 minutes on a single topic every day in October. My topic? Happiness.
Today I took the oldest kids to do some fun fall things.
They rode horses.
Painted pumpkins.
Took a train ride around the lake.
(Why yes, that “train” is a lawnmower and some old farm barrels on wheels. #ruralchic)
It was a happy time, even with Moe’s continual begging to go in the germ factories bouncy houses also available at the festival. (I understand we can’t live in a bubble, but we can’t go around licking bouncy houses, either.)
While we were out David harvested from our “survival of the fittest” garden, and Bea napped.
Here’s the step-by-step guide to “Survival of the Fittest Gardening.”
- Plant some seeds.
- Water half-heartedly on occasion when it gets dry.
- Weed for exactly 40 minutes total over the course of the summer.
- Harvest in the fall, amazed at how little effort was required to get turnips bigger than Bea’s head.
Could more effort yield better results? Sure!
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” ~ Voltaire
( I can’t pretend like I know a lot about French philosophy. I just googled the quote to find the author.)
Perfection is one of the biggest impediments to my happiness. No matter how hard I try, how much I do, it could always be better. My kids got to ride horses today, and I still feel bad about taking time to work on my continuing education class. As David tried to herd them away from the bedroom where I was holed up to work, I felt guilty.
“Mom? Why can’t you come out here?!?!” one anguished child pleaded.
Okay. Outside the bedroom there was roughhousing, books, games, snacks, and so on. I have no idea why the kids weren’t satisfied with all the fun David was hosting. I don’t know why they didn’t remember that earlier in the day– I had taken them to ride horses.
I am making a conscious choice to choose happiness more often on my ultimate quest for joy. Choosing happiness is like planting the seeds in our Survival of the Fittest Garden. We do what we can and hope for the best. No sense fussing over how it could have gone better. Our onions might be smallish, but hey! We grew onions!
Like the little seeds that don’t start out as much, the small ways we choose to be happy can bear fruit over time. Even if it isn’t perfect.
Follow along via facebook, bloglovin, or email subscription (above).
Day 1: The Evolution of an Idea
Day 2: In a Cave
Day 3: The Pursuit
Day 4: Peanuts Gang Style
Day 5: A Beautiful Death
Day 6/7: Like a Moody Teenager
Day 8: Survival of the Fittest Gardening
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