Thinking about five things I would like to do more often is very different from thinking about five things I should do more often. The “shoulds” come so easily. I should eat more leafy greens. I should clean my house more often (or at all). I should reply to all those emails I’ve been ignoring. I should drink less coffee. I should put things away after I use them. I should only check out from the library the number of books I can comfortably read in a week. I should renew my books before I owe money in fines. But what about the wants? What would I like to add to my life to bring more pleasure and joy?
Hike. I live just a couple of miles from an amazing national park and just a few miles more from an equally amazing state park. I love to be outside in nature, yet I constantly have excuses for not hiking. It’s too cold, it’s too hot, there’s too much snow, there’s too much mud. There are too many bugs. There are too many people. Maybe I need to read The Nature Fix to remind myself just how important getting outdoors is.
Paint. For one magical summer, I kept an art journal and I created something every day. I took an online class in art journaling. I learned techniques. I bought supplies. (So many supplies.) And then I got busy, and I quit, and I forgot all the techniques, and it feels like such hard work to dig out all the supplies and relearn the processes. But daily art is truly a joy.
Watch movies. We watch sooooo many sports and sooooo much TV that we often forget about movies. This week we ran out of sports and wrapped up our latest TV show marathon and watched 80s movies. I got to thinking about all the 80s classics my son still hasn’t seen. Perhaps it will be the summer of movies?
Listen to audiobooks. I blame podcasts. I love podcasts so much that I forget about audiobooks. But there are so many stories that I think I would like better in that format and that I think my son would also enjoy listening to. Perhaps it will be the summer of movies AND audiobooks?
Take more photos. I used to be in the habit of taking photos every day. I love having a record of something interesting I’ve seen each day. If nothing else, eight cats provide quite a bit of photogenic subject matter!
This post was inspired by Elsie’s 5 Things to Do More Often. (And watching movies is also on her list!)
the dirigible plum 
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