Small moments of Joy

So, we have an appointment at the bank on Friday. I am no longer able to bury my head in the sand, and must face the fact that, come September, I will be significantly worse off financially. Bummer.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that I am very lucky to have retired relatively young, but my husband and I have had ‘the conversation’ and I appreciate that I will have to adapt my spending habits. Bummer.

All of this has set me thinking about how we reward ourselves and, when I was time poor and resource rich, my rewards were largely based on the material -  meals out, things for the house, shoes…so many shoes. I have also enjoyed treating my family and friends not only at Christmas and birthdays but at random times, just because I could. Now I will have to think a lot more carefully about it first. Bummer.

This being considered, I am going to have to appreciate things that are simpler and thriftier in nature. Bummer!

Seriously though, there must be many things we all do over the course of a week that cost nothing, and would reward us with a moment of joy if only we made the effort to notice them. So, in the interest of paying attention, now that I am time rich and resource poor, I introduce…

Cheap Thrills!

Each week I will aim to identify something that I have experienced or witnessed that has given me a moment’s joy. (Nothing salacious, I promise, and I won’t be using #cheapthrills) I will attempt to notice the things that cost me next to nothing, but please me nevertheless. Whilst this may encourage me to do more, I’m hoping that I also focus more on the things that are already happening, and take the time to savour them. My life has been so frenetic in the past several years, that I fear I may need lots of practice. Since I came up with this idea, I’ve been stumped for inspiration, so it may quickly become an annual posting!

Cheap Thrill #1

My daughter lives near Sheffield, but was home for a holiday last week. On Friday evening, we’d had a BBQ, consumed much gin, and were listening to music. As the evening wore on, we lit the lights and candles in our little garden shelter and sat talking as it got darker and darker.

We experimented with taking photographs of the flickering candles and tried to catch each other out with hideous close ups. Nothing spectacular for a Friday evening, but I was with people I loved, talking, laughing and sitting in the beautiful gazebo my husband and son built for me. Joy, pure joy!