I am happy to report that Jessie is starting to be her old busy self again. It is funny to have had her being sick as a back drop to Romance week but frankly it did not matter. I loved that circumstances did not have to get in the way of of Rob and I having some romantic fun. Today over some coffee in bed Rob read and enjoyed the 101 reasons list I put together and now as I am typing this he is making Jessie and I some breakfast. How much more lovely could it get? I rate myself an 8 out of 10 for the week.
Since I have a few new readers of the blog this week, I thought I 'd share a bit about the project as a whole. I designed this blog as a place to share how am doing while playing what I am calling the Everyday Bliss game. My game is loosely based on Ben Franklin's life long practice to track and study his progress with regard to 13 Virtues. At the bottom of the blog (and posted in the discussion tab titled The Everyday Bliss Game on the new Facebook page) I've listed Ben's Virtues and the definitions which he distinguished. When I decided to try my own version I came up with my own list of Virtues which I believe add to the experience of Everyday Bliss. You can see how I came up with my list in this post and if you are inspired to follow along I hope to increase your experience of everyday bliss. Another way to play would be to come up with your own list of virtues.
In my version of the game, I come up with what I am calling Bliss Initiatives which support each of my weekly virtues. The initiatives are concrete things I will be trying out and those of you who want to play along are invited to try as well. I begin each week on the Monday of a given week and always provide a link back to the weeks Bliss Initiatives (see Romance header at begining of this post for an exmple) and then I blog about how it all is going. Some weeks, like the latest Romance week, go well and other weeks, like serenity week are not very inspiring. Each week I give myself a score 1-10 on how I think I did. I haven't come up with a formal scoring system as of yet so this score is more or less a gut feel on how I think I did.
Newcomers are invited to jump in and just start following along and/or are invited to go back and play with the Virtues that interest them the most. One of my friends likened the blog to a box of chocolates. You may not have time to read along everyday but my hope is that even an occasional visit provides some inspiration and subsequently increases your experience of Everyday Bliss. Each virtue will get four visits during the year, netting four chances to explore each virtues qualities. Amy, one of my readers commented,"I guess this is why it's nice to cycle through your habits over the course of a year - who knows what craziness a week may hold, or how receptive you'll be to a particular change of pace. This experiment is really interesting to watch from afar!"
The game is definitely a work in progress and I welcome feedback of all sorts. I am doing the blog for personal reasons but I'm hoping to provide something of interest for all those who happen to follow along, play along or even come by for a single visit, so please don't be shy about jumping right in and commenting in the blog itself or on the New Facebook Page.
Many thanks to everyone who has taken time to stop by, comment, share and in any way participate with the blog. I am having a great time with it and really appreciate having a community that is interested.
Outrageous joy!
Next Post: Gratitude week begins
My 13 bliss virtues: joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, surprise
