There is this little grass-like plant that has been growing out of a tiny spot of moss near where the Halifax ferry docks. It has been growing and thriving here for months, through all kinds of weather. It keeps slowly growing.
It makes me think of tenacity and opportunity, of making the best of a situation. I imagine it thriving and bringing a spark of joy to greet me each time I cross the harbour. “I’m still here and I’m thriving” it says. “I’m building my life from this little piece of moss.”
A lot can be built from a little. Kind of like the idea I am enough which I talked about in a previous blog post. I am enough, I have enough, more than enough. In fact I have abundance. It reminds me of celebrating joy in the everyday.
A practical exercise
A practice that I share in my Hook a Healing Mat workshops is to look for moments of joy in the everyday. When I was having my radiation treatments I looked for five moments of joy on my way to the hospital every day. These moments might be a child’s smile, the colour of a blooming rose, the way a bird soars over the harbour and so on.
The second part of this exercise is to notice how your body feels when you are feeling joy. Where do you feel it – in your heart, in your arms, in your gut? By connecting with the body feeling I believe we are training our brain to look for joy in the everyday moment. We are getting out of our head and more into our bodies. This exercise can help you to be grounded by noticing the world around you as you travel through your day. It also helps us to form a habit of looking for beauty instead of focusing on the negative. It is hard to have a dark thought while you are opening to a moment of joy.
Let this be enough is finished!
“Let this be enough. Let what you’ve accomplished settle and travel out … see where it lands … like a beautiful pebble dropping and radiating out.”
Designed and hooked by Meryl Cook on linen with new & recycled wool fabric, wool yarns and sari ribbon. “29 x 34”