A Delightful Dinner

My one New Year's Eve resolution was to entertain more often, and lo and behold here it was January 24, and we had yet to do it even once. So when our daughter, Julie, suggested inviting my mother and step-father over for dinner so she could get some grandpa and grandpa hugs, it seemed like a fine idea.

My husband made chicken cacciatore (his favorite dinner) and I made a Greek salad and a loaf of homemade French bread. Mom brought yummy maple cookies and it was indeed a delightful dinner.

Cooking with Teenagers

For the third year in a row my husband and I are organizing a fundraising brunch at our church to help pay for a ski trip for the Youth Group. We act as supervisors, but the kids actually do most of the cooking and it is delightful indeed to spend an afternoon in the kitchen with a dozen teenagers.

They have so much enthusiasm for the task at hand, and for life itself that you can't help but feel energized after rubbing shoulders with them for a few hours. Cooking together also offers the opportunity to really get to know these kids and they are simply fabulous.



Tomorrow we will all serve 120 people a brunch that includes cheesy scrambled eggs, oven baked buttermilk pancakes, baked ham, homefries and fruit. I'm sure the food will be good, but the memories we've created are even better.

Help for Haiti

These nine teenagers and two teachers organized a benefit for Haiti at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School tonight. The three girls in the front were all born in Haiti and have many relatives (including one girl's mother) who are still in Haiti and can not be reached by telephone.

Instead of giving in to their grief and fear, they put their energies towards helping their country. The benefit had music, dancing, food, face painting and this delightful boy named James making cotton candy.

Thoughtful Thursday

Today I meant to start a new regular weekly practice of finding a quote or poem that resonated and then take the perfect photo to accompany it. I decided to call it "Thoughtful Thursday," but then the words took on a different meaning during a routine visit to the Post Office today.

I parked next to a car with three bumper stickers that made me happy:



First thought: A fellow gardener and someone who cares about our earth...



Second thought: Someone who has had the same disappointments and dreams as me this week...



Third thought: A kindred spirit...

Then the owner of the car, an older gentleman, opened the Post Office door for me and gave me a big smile. A few minutes later I ran into him again in the parking lot of Ferretti's Market. We joked about having the same errands, chatted briefly about the benefits of living in a small town, and wished each other a great night. How delightful to find someone who lives what he believes...

And how lovely that my first thought full day also had a delightful measure of thoughtful.

Small Delights Brighten Ordinary Day

The best thing about a project like One Delightful Thing is the mindfullness involved. Suddenly I'm not only noticing delightful things in my everyday life, but actively looking for them. It's too much pressure to always create delight. Sometimes it's better to just watch for it and enjoy what comes my way.

Today was filled with all kinds of small delights, starting with a snow squall. I went outside to enjoy it for a few minutes and the new snowflakes on the remains of my snow woman conjured the image of Frosty's promise: "I'll be back again one day." Today wasn't the day, but hope lives eternal.



Then there was the veggie love I found at Friend's Market...



My sweetie building me a fire...



And a cozy down blanket and beautifully written book that I am truly enjoying.

A Delightful Lunch

There is nothing better than eggs,



Still warm from the chicken that layed them,



With toast made from homemade bread,



Spread with jam you made from apples you picked yourself in Vermont.



I've noticed that alot of my daily delights have to do with food. That might be why my jeans are too tight...

Beach Storm an Unexpected Delight

The weather has been downright balmy lately and for days I have promised myself I would get to the beach for a walk. Somehow that never happened. Then today when my schedule was actually light enough to squeeze in a walk, I woke up to the gloomiest rainy day. After spending a glum morning muttering, "Rain, rain, go away," in a mood as stormy as the weather, it occurred to me that it was silly to let the storm keep me trapped inside.

I headed down to Linnell Landing on Cape Cod Bay where the swells are normally gentle rolls and discovered waves as big as the ones that usually only grace the ocean side beaches. The beach was empty except for me and a lone seagull, both battered by the wind, but moving forward.



A walk was nearly impossible. It was high tide and the waves were kissing the dunes, leaving no beach to walk on.



It was so exhilarating. After the first wave soaked my sneakers, there was no reason to turn back. I was already wet. By the time I got back to my car, my jeans were soaked to my waist, but my cheeks were flushed pink, and I felt more energized that I have in days.

So from now on, no more limited thinking. Never again will I let the weather stop me from getting outside whenever I can, rain or shine.

The Joy of Grandchildren

Delight of the day: spending time with my sweet granddaughter, Skylar.

Even though I've only been doing this delightful thing for five days publicly, I started this project towards joy two weeks ago tonight. Sadly, it's raining tonight instead of snowing, so there will be no new snow women in the near future.

Finding or planning one delightful thing a day hasn't been much of a challenge so far, but I have noticed a difference since I've been blogging about it and trying to post one photo a day. As soon as I opened this project to the public, expectation stepped in, and all of a sudden I began worrying that my "delights" didn't measure up. To what? I ask myself, since no one is reading this but me.

So often we measure things in our lives according to how we think others will perceive us. I'm pretty sure that's a fast road to unhappiness, not joy. Everyone has their own sense of what is delightful and so the lesson of the day is that I will stop trying to find "the PERFECT delight," and just enjoy the delight at hand.

Today we brought Skylar to church with us and then took her to brunch at Hearth 'n Kettle. I haven't seen her since a few days after Christmas and have been missing her so much. I got plenty of hugs and gave her a bag of clothes I bought her on clearance at Old Navy yesterday.

It's so fun to follow in my Grandma Palmer's footsteps. When I was a child, every time I saw her she had a treat of some kind for me. It made me feel so cherished and now I get to pass that on down to Skylar. Delightful.

Tulips in January

In an email this morning, one of my closest friends asked what today's delightful thing was going to be. Oh, the pressure to perform...and it was especially worrisome because I didn't have an answer for her - or myself. There was nothing on the agenda that seemed particularly fun or joyful on this average Saturday.

But her question got me thinking about how I was going to proceed with this experiment towards joy.

Some delightful things are easy to plan. When I see a story or ad in the newspaper about an art exhibit or charity event that I think looks interesting, I immediately think, "future delight," and grab my day planner to pencil it in.

But I think it is also important to leave open the possibility of spontaneous delight. Here's why: On the days where nothing is planned I find myself looking for delightful things all day long. And lo and behold, there are plenty to be found, even in the least likely places - like the grocery store.

Today Friends Market had bunches of tulips for sale at every cash register. Tulips in January - definitely delightful, and best of all only $5.99. Every time I look at them, they will remind me to be open to the unexpected delight that each day offers. I hope that lesson stays with me long after the last petal falls.

Fine Friend and French Onion Soup

One of the things that I've let slide by the wayside of life's busy schedule is spending quality time with friends. My dear friend Pat and I have been trying to get together since before Christmas. Today we finally managed to do so. We met at the Hearth 'n Kettle Restaurant in Orleans for a light lunch of soup.

French onion soup is pretty delightful all on its own, but savoring it while chatting with Pat was simply divine. We even exchanged gifts. She gave me a bottle of French Pinot Noir and I gave her a copy of the memoir Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach.

I meant to lend her my copy of the book, but when I pulled it off my shelf and saw all the pages I'd marked with passages I loved, I decided to buy a copy just for her. I'm going to reread it along with her and and then we plan to meet up again to discuss it. Future delight!

Date Night, Double Delight

Photos courtesy of the Scargo Cafe

Tonight my sweetie and I had a date night. Even though it was technically "work" for me because I have to write reviews for both things we did, we had such a nice time that it counts as my "Delight of the Day."

First we went to the Scargo Cafe on Route 6A in Dennis and had a wonderful dinner. We sat in the tavern near the fireplace where a real fire burned, sipping pineapple martinis made from house infused vodka. Both the atmosphere and the food were fabulous.



Afterwards we saw the excellent play, First Night, at the Barnstable Comedy Club. It was both hilarious and thought provoking. It is a two person play, featuring an underachiever who works in a video store and a nun. They had an unrequited crush on each other in eighth grade and haven't seen each other since. As they examine the paths their lives have taken, they also explore the question, Is it ever too late to truly be happy?

First Night has a fabulous climax that left the audience humming...literally. Now that's delightful!

Making a Snow Woman

Around the first of the year, I realized that I had somehow lost my joy. It wasn’t that I was unhappy, exactly, because there isn’t a whole lot in my life that I would change given the choice. I adore my husband and family, have meaningful work I truly enjoy, and live less than a mile from the beach in a place I will never grow tired of exploring.

But somehow that general happiness didn’t seem to be extending to my day to day life, which was starting to feel like the same old drudgery, over and over again. For the entire week after Christmas I wallowed in my thoughts, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with me. Post holiday let-down? January blues? Seasonal affective disorder?

It didn’t really matter what was causing the problem. I needed a solution and I found one right in my own front yard.

January 3 was a rare snowy night on Cape Cod. At midnight I went out to sit on my front porch for a few minutes before bed to watch the beauty unfold. I love everything about snow and used to drop everything and go out and play every time we got more than a few inches. “Used to” being the key words…

That night as the flakes swirled around me, I absentmindedly made a small snowman (as I always do when it snows) and set him on the ledge of the porch.



Looking at my lame attempt, I thought about how much I love to make snowmen. I remembered making one with my two youngest children at my parents’ house in Vermont. After we finished building it, we joined hands and danced around him, singing, “Frosty the Snowman,” just like the kids in the book.

Another snowman was a gift to our neighbor, Miss Marge, who pretended she didn’t see us while we built him and then feigned surprise when we rang her doorbell to show off our creation.

That was years ago. I asked myself, “What is stopping me from making a full size snowman right now?”

Nothing but my own inertia. So I threw on some winter clothes and began rolling snowballs. The snowflakes on my cheeks felt divine and I was happier than I’d been in a long time.

The snow woman only took me a half hour to create, but during that time I realized that this, THIS, was what I needed in my life.

I decided that I would start doing “One Good Thing” every day, which I later revised to “One Delightful Thing.” Why settle for good (which sounds a bit too close to good enough) when you can have sheer delight instead? This blog is intended to keep me motivated and provide accountability. Let the experiment begin…