Miller Time Friday: The Little Things

I was reminded this week, as I often am, of how it is the small things in life that can bring us the most joy.  Our happiness does not depend on the material things we own (though they can be pretty swell), but from a contented recognition of the myriad of little things, simple blessings, that when taken together form a pattern of contentment and a quiet joy.

Those are the things in our lives we ought cling to; our financial, physical, professional lives are every changing.  We can no more hold on to them than we can catch the wind in our hands.

I saw an interview last year with Shawn Achor, the best-selling author of the happiness advantage.

I confess I have not read his book, though I have seen him interviewed several times and was always impressed.

One of the key things that Achor found in his research was that happy people are grateful.  And gratitude, like all of our muscles, can be worked on and improved.  A key exercise he has readers and patients do is that each day for 21 days, they must record 3 news things they are grateful for and why they are grateful.    Since they must be three new things daily, it is not possible to fall back upon the rote "I'm grateful for my health, family, etc".  It requires a specificity that challenges the person to think. 

I do this regularly now and it does build one's resilience, since to be human by definition means that one will always be subjected to stresses and bad luck and change. 

I was thinking of this today when my hummingbirds arrived home.  They arrived, as always, without fanfair; if I could the trumpets would have blared and they would have been announced like Cinderella at the ball, such is the esteem in which they are held here.  But this morning, standing there looking out the front window, still in my bathrobe, the male hummingbird flew up and for a good 30 seconds, hovered in front of me outside the window.  Neither of us spoke, since at that moment neither of us were capable of speaking, least of all me.  I had one of my three things at seven a.m. and I was all the better for it.

There are people far richer than I, but this morning I felt rich indeed, because I felt grateful.

And in honour of my returning friend, shall we have something sweet?


 The Hummingbird Cocktail

 

Ingredients

2 ounces brut Champagne or dry sparkling wine
1 1/2 ounces St-Germain
2 ounces club soda
Lemon twist, for garnish

Directions

1. Stir sparkling wine, St-Germain, and club soda together in a tall ice-filled Collins glass, mixing completely. Garnish with a lemon twist.

If you haven't thought of three things today, happy hour is the perfect time to do so! 

My list is easy:

1) my hummingbird encounter
2) a lovely conversation with a dear friend
3) knowing that there is a lovely Cote du Rhone awaiting me for dinner....

How about yours?

Have a lovely Friday!

xoxo wendy

11 Random Facts About Me

The Lovely Jen over at Dwell on These Things has flagged me to share the above.

I am so behind in all of my post topics, and not feeling 100% today, so I'm taking the easy way out and getting right to these, so thank you dear Jen! 

1. One of my favourite shows ever was the one season wonder A Year in The Life.  It had an amazing cast - Adam Arkin, Richard Kiley, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jayne Atkinson - and only lasted one season.  I was one of the 5 people who watched it and I have been bitter towards NBC about its cancellation ever since. 

 

 

 

 

 That was 1987, did I mention I can

2.  Hold a grudge?  well not too often, but I am an inherently trusting person and if someone does something really awful that breaks that trust, like say cancel a wonderful TV show, I can be slow to forgive. 

3. I was the first girl to serve as a server in the Anglican Church in New Brunswick.  It was a big deal at the time, thank god, now, not so much.  However, I do not attend church now, but prefer to leave my spirituality and religion up on Walton's Mountain...

4. Cause I love, love, love the first few seasons of The Waltons.  When I still catch an episode now and then and the episode includes Will Geer and Ellen Corby, I sit right down, as I know I am in for a treat.

5. My favourite Popsicle flavour is root beer.  It is also the only kind of pop I will drink.  I am like an eleven year old boy.

 

6. I have a pair of Talbots chocolate suede high heel shoes with a chocolate satin ribbon tie that I can barely walk in and will never give up.  Because I love ribbons.  Grosgrain, silk, satin, printed, it matters not.  If there is a ribbon on something, I am all over it.  That is the eleven year old girl in me.

7. I never, ever, wear a belt.  I have them, but I hate them.  I never feel comfortable with a belt on.  Now I wonder why I have them?

8. Every time I see a hummingbird I get giddy.  Between May and September they come constantly and it never gets old.  But all that giddiness can wear you out.  You wouldn't think it would, but it does.

9. I meditate every day but I am almost never able to keep my mind quiet.  There is a reason I am attracted to hummingbirds.

10. I have never met a book about France - from cooking to fashion to décor to travel to history - that I didn't like.

 

11. When I become a bazillionaire, I am going to have Ralph Lauren help me out - clothes-wise, house-wise, work-wise.  I adore Ralph Lauren.  I am pretty sure he would adore me, too.



bonus fact:

Jen says she is a germophobe.  Just yesterday I searched for a piece of cookie I dropped on the carpet for at least 8-10 seconds, found it and ate.  There's that eleven year old boy again...

There you go, some random pieces of information!  Looking forward to reading the others!  Have a great day out there and tomorrow, we will take a little journey to Italy via Orlando.  Only in America...

stay safe out there!

 

Random Saturday Musings

Lots to chat about this week!

1) David Beckham's Retirement

I leave it to experts to assess the impact of Beckham on football.

All I know is that Beckham helped popularize what we North Americans know as soccer.  And underwear. He did SOOOO much for underwear.  And I salute him for that.

I am sure David will do many interesting things in his retirement and I wish he and his family much happiness. And will hope that his retirement affords more time for modelling...

2) The Hummingbirds are Back!

They arrived late yesterday afternoon, a few days later than normal.  Maybe they stopped in with Lane for a visit?  No matter.  They are back and they are lovely and we are having a wonderful time enjoying their antics again!

3) Dan Brown's New Book

Will you read Dan Brown's new book, Inferno?

I actually picked it up yesterday for $15 at a local bookshop.  These are fast, fun reads; one doesn't expect great literature, but one does expect the plot to move quickly, that there will be a few surprises along the way and that you will learn a little something, because his research is typically quite good.  I was interested in this one, as it is set in Florence and the mystery is related to Dante.

I read an interesting article that likened Dan Brown to Anne Hatheway: the author we love to hate.  You can read the article here.  I never expect much from these kinds of novels, nor do I typically read them.  I find Brown an infinitely better writer than others of the same ilk, like John Grisham, but I treat reading these kind of works like going to Iron Man 3: I'll have fun while it's happening and then pretty much forget it when it's done.  It is remarkable to me how we do punish these people for being so popular when we are the ones that have made them so.  I find myself moving more and more into the camp of wanting to argue against this kind of dog-piling and I find it helps to not read much of it and just enjoy what he or she has to offer.  Or not enjoy it, but not go on about it.

4) And speaking of haters gotta hate...

Ben Affleck hosts and Kanye West performs on tonight's season finale of Saturday Night Live.  You can see the promo here.  I'll be taping this one, because, well, you never know what Kanye will do.  And I kind of like that in a twisted way.  I am not a Kanye fan per se; in fact, probably not at all.  But I do kind of like that, in a world where celebrities are pre-packaged and their images are managed to within an inch of their lives, that Kanye is a completely unpredictable fellow.

And speaking of Kanye, I feel that we need to do an intervention for poor Kim Kardashian's feet.  I feel sorry for Kim; she obviously feels that she can't NOT wear sexy shoes, even when her poor old tootsies are swollen and painful.  When I was pregnant with my first child, I went from a size 6.5 to a size 8 for the last three months of the pregnancy and wore a pair of ugly flats from Walmart.  Those were not happy days.  But i believe that Kim can find comfy shoes and I encourage her to do so, though I doubt she will listen to me!  Flip flops, anyone?

5) The Truth is out there...

The number of UFOs spotted by Canadians doubled in 2012 to approximately 2000 sightings, breaking all records.  Folks from Ontario saw almost 40% of those UFOs.  About 7% of those sightings remain unexplained 

If YOU want to see a UFO, the most likely places in Canada to spot one are Toronto, Calgary, Kelowna, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

What about you?  Have you ever seen one?  I can't say that I have, nor would I say I would like to.  I think I will satisfy myself with going to see the new Star Trek movie and keep my eyes on the ground!

Hope your Saturday is grand - we have some friends coming over for a BBQ tonight, which should be fun and relaxing.  It is the Victoria Day Weekend after all, and despite how cold it is here, you gotta BBQ!  Stay safe out there!

And since it is the Victoria Day Weekend, will leave you with this final image:

Replacing Jammies with JCew Chiffon Top in Pewter and stretchy pants

Well, as you know from yesterday's post, I went to see my in-laws.

And that meant one especially wretched thing amongst many other potentially wretched things (which in the spirit of Christmas I will nobley choose not to name!):

I have to get out of my comfy clothes. 

Sigh....

And I had to put on pants that required buttoning and zipping...

"It's too soon!" I cried aloud, as I stood in front of my closet and then looked down at my waistline.  "I haven't started the celebrity-fast-detox-purge-binge-whatever that I should have started at midnight last night!!"

But alas, I had not managed to fit that in.  And so, as I put on my two year old stretchy Cynthia Steffe jeggings/riding pants/pants-I-could-fit-into thingamajigs, I definitely needed a special top, something that would hang over my own hanging-over parts.  And I recalled that in one of the bleary-eyed 30% early morning madnesses of two weeks ago I had ordered two of the chiffon blouses - one in the pewter leopard, the other in soft fuchsia.  They fit perfectly and they were elegant and so I decided to keep them.

It is a lovely blouse, which seems to be sold out right now on the site, but which will likely pop back at any moment for even cheaper than what I paid.  It is a soft silk with substance and even after me being scrunched up in the backseat for 2 hours each direction, did not wrinkle.  A miracle!

No one but me dressed up at all for this event.  But I felt good.  And while I could feel all of my jiggly bits, I felt that I had camouflaged them quite nicely and frankly, we will deal with them on January 2nd. 

Here I am, looking slightly stunned!  I have paired them with my grey Tippi cardigan and when I arrived chez in-laws, I put on my purple tie ballet flats.  No one noticed.  I looked cute for a woman who feels like she has swallowed the whole turkey!

I thought you might also want to see the big surprise Mr. WMM provided me: garnet earrings and matching necklace.

While the coat was expected (I had chosen it after all) the jewellry was not.  I was shocked to get two pieces of lovely jewellry, which is indicative of

a) how much of a haggler he has become since he purchased the diamond earrings and now feels quite emboldened to go into a jewellry shop and get a good deal; and
b) how down in the dumps I have been in the last few weeks, both following my dad's passing, the lead up to Christmas in the wake of that, and my decision that it may be time to consider what I want to do for the next 15 years of my life.  I do not recommend such malaise as a way to get fine jewellry, but I am not complaining!



The necklace with a wee tiny diamond

 
One of the earrings (the other was already on my ear!)

A very nice surprise indeed!

I hope your week is going well!  We could not get tickets for Les Miserables last night and are hoping to hit there today!  Stay safe out there!

On the 3rd Day of Christmas, WMM gave to me:


Two hummers feeding by her honeysuckle tree:

In the darkest days of winter, and on those days when our spirits are feeling dark indeed, it is comforting to remember that summer will come again and so will these beautiful creatures.

Thank you all so much for stopping by.  You do not know this - but you are making me very brave indeed - more on that soon!