Enjoying: Just a Little Attention

This post is sponsored by Born Shoes as part an ongoing partnership to highlight their fall collection and wave my fall freak flag.

I started a new skincare regimen recently, and I’m all in, convinced a new wholehearted approach to healthy skin will somehow up my “Life is Grand” meter but also subconsciously aware that life doesn’t suddenly get better with a great shampoo/self-help book/new diet/cute sweater/good haircut/D.I.Y. project (or does it? ;o). So I fall into a healthy medium while I smear the green night cream onto my last night, hopeful with the “dewy/younger-looking” promise the bottle gives yet aware of what’s really happening here. Five days in, and I wonder–is it really making my skin get better like I imagine, or is part of the placebo effect? A shift in my brain after creating time for myself at the end of the day that includes this lovely ritual of opening the little bottles lined up on my bathroom counter, washing away the grime of a long day and giving my skin some much-needed attention with creams and cotton balls and a pretty stack of washcloths I arranged for this new routine. Sure, hyaluronic acid and sea kelp might actually have some beneficial effects for my skin, but it’s more about the space I made for the routine that makes me feel like my skin is better.

Sometimes, it’s simply a little attention neglected areas of our lives need to make them better–not a complete overhaul, not a new face, not an expensive program that promises to fix all your problems.

It’s why 1 run can make you feel like your jeans fit better.
Or 1 tough conversation with your spouse can make you feel like your marriage is improved.
Why 1 trip to the ice cream store with your kid who needed some love can switch “I’m failing” to “I’m winning.”
Or 1 coffee date with a friend can suddenly open your world from “I’m going to die in this minivan, driving kids to various outings” to “The world is so full of people who make my life rich!”

How do you do it all? I don’t. I just listen for areas of my life that feel a little dried out and give them some attention, one at a time. Sometimes that’s as simple as a new sweater that makes me happy, a book that inspires me, or an evening ritual in my bathroom that gives love to thirsty skin. And sometimes it’s something richer–a moment on the couch with three little bodies tangled around me, reading Skippyjon Jones for the fifth time, fully aware of my “Life is Grand” meter creeping up, up, up. 

Enjoying…

Listening to the whispers of “I need a little attention” this week.

Giving Dash a proper paper airplane lesson in my Born Panarea boots that whisper “Tis the season to frolic in the falling leaves even if there aren’t any.”

Running outside once the lightning has passed to splash in puddles…

A room that’s staying clean thanks to a new laundry basket…

Sunday snuggles…

Watching her self-love…

Bubble Baths. Always a savior, despite the hilarious ridicule Jessi Klein makes of women who love baths (“So Cathy Cartoonish”, “Yay, I’m submerged in a watery trough!”).

Seasonal traditions that involve getting messy…

Slivers of light…

Slow and beautiful metamorphosis…