When I walk my new black standard poodle, Arthur, in the mornings, I listen to podcasts. It
seems like a nice way to start the morning - with a little motivation and energy. This morning I listened to a Brian Buffini podcast in which Buffini interviewed Neil Pasricha, a Canadian author, entrepreneur, podcaster, and public speaker characterized by his advocacy of positivity and simple pleasures. He is best known for his The Book of Awesome series, and "The Happiness Equation" which are international bestsellers.
During the podcast, Neil Pasricha talked about the benefits of focusing on awesome things - things that make you happy. Some of his examples were fun and funny - such as turning the pillow over to the cool side or getting snuggly under a lot of heavy blankets on a really cold night. He wrote posts on his blog for 1000 days about awesome things and used it to recover from a broken marriage and the loss of his best friend to suicide. Since the podcast I had listened to the day before talked about how hard life is - and that we need to continue to get up and get going every morning anyway - I decided I would try to focus on awesome things in my life.
So here is my first offering on awesome things in my life. Christmas lights that linger in January.
When I walk Arthur in the evening, it is pretty dark in my neighborhood. There are no sidewalks, not a lot of people around and sometimes the street lights flicker on and off. While that makes it sound like I live in a scary neighborhood, I don't. I live in Bethesda MD, just about four miles from the line that separates Maryland from DC. It just is dark at night.
Happily, some people have left their Christmas lights on still. I particularly appreciate the lingering Christmas lights because the white lights on the bushes in front of my house are still lit. Two other homes on my street still have their lights on, icicles and swags shining in the night. I think we are all still waiting to see who will go the longest!
Up the street and around the corner from me is a home with bright red lights shining around their front door. It is lovely in the dark of January to see those cheery lights blinking at me!
I believe in the strength of Christmas lights in the dark. We need the joy of those twinkling lights even more in January than in December! They put a smile on my face every night as Arthur and I walk through the dark!
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