Nourish ~ Small Things Matter

Welcome to Nourish: 31 Days of Family, Food, and Faith. This is Day 11. To see the rest of the series click here!

The very idea of being nourished might carry with it thoughts of ease and luxury. When I think of being nourished, the image of a big pillowy bed with soft white sheets with a tray holding coffee, scones, and a bud vase with a single rose resting in it placed just off to one side and yours truly perched right there in the middle underneath a warm comforter with my nose firmly placed in a book. What’s not to love? 

All forms of nourishment do not come with coffee and roses and books filled with noses.

Some forms of nourishment come from having done the hard thing. I’m learning this one slowly because my default mode is to do the hard thing LATER. I’m learning that doing the tuff stuff eases tension and equals a wonderful sense of accomplishment. And just like rituals, doing difficult things automatically and without lots of mental whining makes them productive habits. 

Here’s what I’m working on…some things are getting so much easier. Some things…still sound of whining, the out loud kind and the mental kind.

1. Going on the run in the dreary rain because it’s your day to run.  (because, endorphins! because, sorbet!)
2. Making sure the sink is empty every night before bed.  (because mornings are hard enough without a sink full of ick.)
3. Sit-ups…I’m up to 120 per day (because apparently achieving a strong core qualifies you for superherodom, and because…sorbet!)
4. At least one load of laundry per day (because it’s just not proper to “do without” in this area AND because I feel like a failure when I see Man or children searching frantically through a clean but very wrinkly basket of laundry in search of a missing sock or shirt or…etc.)
5. Getting to bed at a decent hour each night (because if I get up early in the morning I can beat the teens to the coffee maker, and because time in the early morning allows me to have a better shot at #1, #3, #4)

Can I encourage you a bit? Sometimes I have to trick myself into action. The night before I'm supposed to run I lay out my clothes so that the moment I get out of bed I can see them. If I still hesitate, I tell myself to just get dressed and go for a walk. Once dressed, I get outside and then the running part is the easiest task of the whole process!

With that sink that haunts me in the evenings...I tell myself to just get dishes in the dishwasher then handle the rest in the morning. Once I've cleared the sink of dishwasher dishes, it's no big deal to finish the job. 

I'm learning that the very most difficult part of a job is to just get started, often motivation will follow.

Image credit: thesketcheffect.com

Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment.

~Leonardo da Vinci