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CELEBRATING The Simple Joys Of Life!

Ask yourself what really makes you happy:

·        It's NOT just about losing weight.

·        It's NOT just about  having material possessions.

·        It's NOT just about having a career or the perfect job.

·        It's NOT the many other things that you think will make you happy.

What really makes you happy is focusing on WHAT you do have to enjoy, SIMPLE THINGS, to rejoice in ordinary things. Don't take things for granted. Just the ordinary things of life add richness and depth to existence.

I started by watering the seeds of happiness in myself.

                                                                                              

Pictures Below Show the Many Ways I Embrace CELEBRATING the simple JOYS of Living!

(Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.)

My Favorite Things!

Collage shows my favorite things: flower and vegetable gardens, all of nature, but especially forests and mountains, animals, food, and HUGS!

Having Friends is a JOY!

Being able to share meals, times in nature, and even doing sidewalk chalk is SO MUCH fun!

More Side Walk Chalk FUN!

Boy did Amber and I have a really enjoyable time! Although, I would say that many of my animal drawings looked liked creatures from outer space!

Tich The Dog Helps Out!

Oh, the joys of art!

Hiking Drawing at Pamelia Lake

My lovely friend Carol DeGregory painted this picture of me. She also did the other AMAZING drawings on this web site.

I Made The Pottery Vause In Class With A Friend!

I also LOVE flowers! I cut flowers from the Pink Dogwood tree and also put in Azeleas from the yard.

Flowers In The Kitchen!

I celebrate the JOYS of spring in the Northwest.

Oh, More Flowers in the Dining Room!

I like flower arranging.

Camp Robber Birds While On A Hike

Spending time in nature is SO uplifting.

My Favorite Tree at Fernhill Park

Oh, I wait each year for Autumn and the vibrant colors on this tree. Today on a walk I also passed by many flowering cherry trees in Northeast Portland. They were AMAZING, DELICIOUS, and SPLENDID!!!

Living Juicy by Sark

Taking time for PLAY is essential for our emotional well-being. Sark's LivingJuicy book is a yearly meditation book with hundreds of "juicy morsels." It always puts a SMILE on my face.

Life--Reach Out And HUG IT!!

Here's me and a friend HUGGING a HUGE tree at the Oregon coast.

                                             All images (except SARK) are copyright © by Bob Wilson

The May 12-Permission to Play drawing is from Living Juicy-Daily Morsels For Your Creative Soul, & The Bodacious Book of Succulence by Sark (1994), Celestial Arts, Berkeley, California.  (Please note that I have added high-lighting colors to the above drawing). See Ten Speed Press for many excellent publications: http://www.tenspeedpress.com/catalog/tenspeed/index.php3 For a catalog from SARK, call:  (800) 841-BOOK. These books are SO MUCH FUN and are delightfully colorful! www.campsark.com

What Does It Look Like When Things Are Going Well? What Am I Doing?


FROLIC AROUND: The Power of Fun: Celebrate Enjoyable Ways To Be Active!  and
Frolic In Nature! for pictures of some of the AWESOME places in nature that I have visited. Eat your way around CELEBRATE Healthful Eating! Yum! Make It FUN. Make It Colorful! for mouth FUN!

Cultivate an awareness of the sacredness of life!

In Thich Nhat Hanh's book Present Moment Wonderful Moment--Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living*, Parallax Press, (1990) he shares:

We take our toes for granted. We worry about so many things, but we seldom think about our toes. If one small toe steps on a thorn, however, our whole body will feel the pain. Holding one toe in our hand, we can feel its peace and joy. It has been a good friend. It is not broken. It does not have cancer. We can thank our toe for its health and well-being.

Our toe and each cell of our body exist interdependently, not separately. If our body exist interdependently, not separately. If our body becomes ill or injured, the cause many be external, such as bacteria from contaminated food, alcohol in another driver's bloodstream, or a bomb dropped from a plane.

If the sun were to stop shining, life on earth would cease. We must understand that our body also includes all of these things. The sun is our heart outside of our body. Our life and the life of all existence are one continuous life. The peace and joy of our small toe are the peace and joy of our whole body and mind, and the peace and joy of the entire universe. Once we identify with our toe, we can proceed further to identify ourselves with all life. Life comes from the whole universe.

Pay a visit to Parallax Press Resources for Mindful Living: http://www.parallax.org/

*From the introduction: This book contains short verses to help us dwell in mindfulness. We often become so busy that we forget what we are doing or even who we are. We forget to look at the people we love and to appreciate them...we don't know how to get in touch with what is going on inside and outside of ourselves...To meditate is to be aware of what is going on in our bodies, our feelings, our minds, and in the world. This is a delightful book that promotes a feeling of joy and of the sacredness of life.

For ideas on Self-Nurturing and Self-Esteem: Learn the skills for emotional nurturing. They're euphoric and non-caloric! Learning and practicing these skills will help to transform emotional eating. See the links below from the Essential Skills section of this site.

             Copyright © 2001-2022 Bob Wilson BS, DTR  All Right Reserved. Articles are for personal use only. Please request permission for other uses. Thanks!