What a wonderful day! In a nutshell: Penny Dreadful, clean room, sun, new fitness buddy, good food and new bucket list ideas.
After a weekend of celebrating and lot’s of pies and snacks (YUMM) I dragged myself to the gym for a nice workout. Ok, I didn’t drag myself this time. I actually was really motivated to go! Maybe it was the weather, but I had no problem going out today.
It was a nice surprise that a friend of mine joined me when I was warming up and we agreed to being fitness buddy’s for at least the next two weeks. It’s been a while since I last saw him, so it was great catching up too! There was this funny story during our conversation I wanted to share with you today. A perfect example of mindfulness and appreciation brought to you by.. vultures!
I wanted to know how my friend’s vacation in Spain had been and he responded by telling how he had spent his days. One of the things he did was picking fresh oranges from the trees every morning and making fresh juice out of them (added to bucket list!). By noon lot’s of people in the village were already enjoying different wines at a café. He noticed that the people over there live in such a different way than we do, that they really take so much pleasure in the small things of life. I imagined them as real epicureans.
He enjoyed taking it easy, but also took some time to go out with his dad and girlfriend for sightseeing. This is where the vultures come in!
He and his girlfriend had given his father a monocular which he took with him when they went sightseeing. When they saw a bird a bit further away they used the monocular to see what it was. It turned out to be a vulture and they were all excited and in awe seeing this amazing creature in nature all by itself. As he described it, it was a very special experience they shared.
The next day they visited a sort of national park that is very popular among tourists. This time they saw dozens of vultures at the same time and somehow did not get the same feeling they had the day before. As special as the experience was the day before, it was normal at that moment. Gone was their special feeling, but I tried to make him realize he could still recall this special feelings and that we sometimes just forget how special daily things can be while they just seem to be ‘normal’. There are so many things we’re lucky to have that we forget the small things may be appreciated too. As you can see, when something like that is observed on it’s own taken in with attention you realize how amazing it actually can be. So even if there’s so much of something it doesn’t mean it can’t be special.
So remember when you observe your surroundings and gestures that are made that small things are appreciable, and that sometimes less is more in the context of experiencing (like with food!).
So with this in my thoughts: I have a lot of big things to achieve on my bucket list and I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for me considering small things that can be achieved, but can give me just as much joy doing it or experiencing it! It would be much appreciated 😀 !