(... though it is, in fact, Tuesday now, but hey ...) You find me smiling as I edit the photos of a wonderful five-mile walk to and around the splendid Chatsworth estate, and so grateful that the Duke and Duchess allow ordinary people access to the land they look after and care for, for free. You'll notice I'm smiling as I stand on those stone steps in the wood which stretches steeply upwards behind the house: that was soon wiped off my face when I rounded the corner and found hundreds more steps to go. Feels like a metaphor for these strange times we live in!
Looking through the lens of the aesthetics of joy this week is keeping my brain sparking and supplied a rush of inner recognition when the author mentioned 'tolerations': things you tolerate but sap your energy in the process, so that "your home effectively becomes a giant To Do list that you're living inside, making it impossible to relax". And when reading here about guilt, regret, shame and overwhelm, and came across examples of tolerations as "a broken chair, a blown-out lightbulb, a picture that needs to get framed", I looked at the stack of the latter propped up behind my desk and thought: Right on, sister, times twelve!
But the thing which is warming my heart this Monday is this little trooper of a rose, The Lady of Shallot, just outside the back door. Despite seven inches of snow in November, more last week and recent sub-zero temperatures, she is still putting energy into blooming ...
And that does feel like a good lesson to carry with me this week! Warm good wishes to you all, Alexa.