Things to Look Forward To

I love this book!  It's not that I haven't looked forward to things so much as that I've taken looking forward for granted.  Just another part of life, just another part of a day, week, month, year.  No big deal.  This book, Things to Look Forward To: Large and Small Joys for Today and Everyday, reminds me how important having things to look forward to can be, how they can add a little spark, a little light to our days, especially after more than two years of a pandemic and all the limitations it put on us.

For each of the 52 things in the book, the author, Sophie Blackall, includes a painting and a few lines or paragraphs with her thoughts about it. 

Some of the things she names are the first snow, seeing eggs with painted faces when she opens her refrigerator, finding something she thought was lost, and coming home--plus 48 other large and small events in a day, a week, or a year.

Sophie Blackall has won two Caldecott Awards (for best children's picture book).  I can see why.  Her paintings, done with Chinese Ink and watercolor, are delightful.   

After reading her book I decided to make my own list of things I look forward to, things that happen spontaneously as well as ones I anticipate or plan for in advance.  (You know the delight of anticipation!)  These are some of them, in no particular order. 

• Ice water, especially in the morning but any time, really.
• Rainy days
• Being with my grandchildren again
  
• Gathering and drying lavender and sweet grass
• Clean sheets.  Even though it's a weekly event, it still feels like a luxury.
  
• Seeing a row of birds on an electric wire.  We see them gather in late afternoons along the freeway, which is about the time we're coming home if we've been up north.
  
• Autumn with its glisten, crunch, and glow
  
• The fragrance of honeysuckle
• Watching a well-loved movie
• Trader Joe's chocolate croissants.  We bring them home frozen then let them rise overnight and bake them in the morning.  Fresh from the oven they are delicious.
  
• Sundays, for worship and physical, mental, and emotional rest from daily activities, concerns, and challenges
• Thunderstorms 
• Spending time at the ocean
• Fresh, homemade, crusty artisan bread with Jai Lai butter.  The Jai Lai restaurant no longer exists but its butter recipe (with the perfect blend of herbs) lives on.    
  
• A murmuration of starlings.  I love watching them dip and sway, then turn on a dime to fly another way.  Amazing.
  

How about you?  Do you have things you look forward to?  What are some of them?

--Nancy.