Jungle Lessons-- a path to Serenity in every day life!

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SERENITY- the state or quality of being serene, calm, or tranquil; composure, peacefulness, peace. [Serenity week begins here. Click for this week's Bliss Initiatives.]

From It's a Small World Ride Photo by "Disney Philip"

I've been hopping around the internet looking for tips or tools that will help us experience more serenity. I had an idea to possibly share the top five ways to inject Serenity or something like that when I stumbled across this: "see the glass as already broken!" then it all clicked! The number one reason I find serenity so allusive is that I am always expecting perfection. Not necessarily physical perfection, as that statement implies but perfection in how things are SUPPOSED to feel, look, be enjoyed etc. 

Case in point, the other day Jessie was talking about the It's a Small World ride and how much she liked the African jungle part of the ride when I came up with the inspired idea to recreate that jungle right in our home. We strung ribbon across our living room. Made leaves and flowers. In no time we had quite the display.

Then very quickly I hatched a vision of an entire week of fun projects. We could make the leaves and flowers today. Tomorrow we can hang birds and other fun stuff (notice the party blower J added!) and the next day would be butterflies and other bugs the next... I imagined "playing jungle" for days and singing "It's a Small World," reading jungle related books... a whole cornucopia of activities that would keep ME and  The Girl interested in playing together.

What actually happened is we got as far as you see in the first photo and then J started asking things like, "When can we pull it down mommy?" and "I want to cut more mommy, PLEASE can I cut more??" 

I spent the next day protecting my vision. "J please don't pull on it! Let's keep it up for Daddy to see!" Frankly it wasn't all that fun. Finally I relented and let J cut to her hearts content. It wasn't nearly as bad I thought. She really was quite deliberate in her cutting and we had a good half hour of cutting fun until she eyed the strings! And after the first string fell cry's to "fix it mommy" rang out and we hung it back up.

By not protecting it I had allowed J to see the consequences of her actions AND it relieved so much pressure. I supposedly did this for her fun but when I got committed to how I wanted things to go it stopped being fun for either of us.

At this point in time a few strings remain. We may or may not add to them and next time J asks "When can we pull it down?" I will happily say "How about right now?!" 

So how about you? Where have you gotten committed to things being a certain way? What would happen if you let go of that? What if you approached already expecting things to go differently? 

Disappointments  are always possible but if we expect them and look at the glass as already broken it might very well be possible to enjoy what ever actually shows up.

Ahhh now that sounds serene!

[Inspiration for this post came from reading "A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind" over at the Zen Habits website. Do check it out for even more tension relieving insights!]

Next Post: What ever shows up!

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My 13 bliss virtues are  

joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, 

community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, and surprise. 

 [Click on any virtue to see all the Everyday 

Bliss Posts on the topic.]

The Whimsy of a child

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WHIMSY - extravagant, fanciful, or excessively playful expression; an odd or fanciful notion. [Whimsy week begins here. Read this delightful guest post or click here for some Bliss Initiatives to increase your experience of Whimsy]


Yesterday I went on a whimsy search. Hopping all over the internet for inspiration. It was a total blast. The truth of the matter, however, is that I do not need to go so far for my whimsical inspiration. My three year old is a walking (actually more usually running) talking (possibly shrieking) breathing (laughing, happy, fun) Whimsy Machine! 

Case in point photo!

Today as I was thinking about what to write about, little J came in and said, "My fairy dust isn't working! This sheep won't fly." She had doused her stuffed sheep with white rice (thankfully uncooked) and was very disappointed in the results. Earlier in the week the white rice had served well as the shaky filling to a paper plate tambourine. This is the norm for her, finding new whimsical uses for everyday items. I never know when chopsticks will become wands, cans will become drums, hats or shoes or any number of regular housewares will morph into pirate booty, shopping treasures, banquet offerings or bricks for princess "towders" (One of her dwindling number of baby speak words.) 


If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you are treated regularly to my J-girl-isms, the totally delightful "obserbations" (the positively x-rated baby speak word she otherwise uses correctly) and points of view from the girl herself. What, even you regular Facebook readers, may not realize is that this banter and movement s NON-STOP!! I am honestly thinking about installing motion sensitive cameras around my home to catch all the action. I gather what I can and even occasionally post something in her memory blog but I know I'm missing a lot. So, just for posterity's sake I thought I'd share some tidbits from an average day:


A first request of the morning. "Mommy can I have a chocolate?" I'm sorry J, not for breakfast. "But when you are little I let you have chocolate!" J regularly refers to the wonderful things she does when it is her turn to be the mommy!

"Let's go shopping mom!" (This does not require leaving the house. Some type of shopping bag is all that is required and any toy bin, clothes drawer, or pantry shelf serves as stores.) "I'll drive! You be the little kid." (We sit in the bed car and make the requisite driving noises) "We're here! Lets look at the map." (Once we took a mall brochure that had a small grid with the local streets, J referred to that map for weeks -- "Let me show you where we are. Can we get there from here? Yep, going home is an option!!" -- that brochure is lost so a piece of newspaper serves as a substitute.) We find some bags and use a small push cart and following our map find our way to buying books and other assorted items.  "OK lets go on a trip now." Back into our car we go. What trip J? Where are we going? I ask. "A place like Disneyland only closer." (I guess the six hour drive was more then J would like to repeat!).... and oh the place we go...


"OK you are the little kid and I am the mommy. I am a Pirate mommy. You are a 'egular little kid, you wear wings NOT a pirate hat."

"Lets do a project now mommy. We need EVERYTHING!" Everything consist of dumping the craft contents of a very large plastic bin on the dining room table. "I'm making this for you! Do you like it?!" Of course I do! Everyone loves a paper plate plastered with tape glue and sticks.

"Hurry! I need my 'noculars! It is wind-ing very hard outside."

"There is Max!! Mommy can we go see him!!" Max, the neighbor's cat, does not share her enthusiasm and disappears behind the garage across the street.

Undaunted, j looks for other friends. "Look! Snails!! They will be my friend! Snails love me mommy." A full hour of gathering and convincing the snails that they would be happier under a bush in the backyard results in only one little guy losing a shell due to rough handling. "Mommy, we can save him. I  will feed him leaves! He will grow his shell back!" We move the wounded snail into a plastic container filled with the leaves J has collected and hope for the best. Research on the internet tells us that he could actually grow his shell back if he wasn't too big when he lost it. Not sure what "too big" is but 4 hours later the little guy is still moving around in the container. We'll leave him under a bush and tomorrow I'm sure (no matter the real outcome) he will be better and off slithering around with his friends again!!

"Let's play Candy Land!! Come on mommy, you will LOVE it!  Kitty will be blue and you can be yellow. I am red." We commence with a game, which starts out normally until Jessie decides "I am the orange getter. Orange is my favorite. You can have purple." At this point J only moves after finding an orange card (flipping through the deck until getting to one) If I try to move on anything but purple I am told "NO you are the purple goer! Kitty can have that one." Game is over when Jessie says, "I done. Let's play Hide and Seek."

Hide and Seek is J's absolutely FAVORITE game and she pleads and begs to play often. I actually have no problem with playing the game but her version can get pretty monotonous. "OK mommy you count. I will hide here." Jessie if you tell me where you are I can find you. "I want you to find me mommy." OK count now. I count and "try to find" J. When the 3 seconds I have expended becomes too long for her she shouts, "I'm right here mommy!" Squeals of delight when I say "I got you!" follow.  When it is my turn to hide I am told "You hide here and I will count!" This can go on for hours... ok really not, I only last about three rounds and thankfully direct her back to another project!!

"It is a cele-great-ion  mommy!" (instead of celebration! I thought that was pretty good!!) "We are happiness mommy! Let's sing!"

We are happiness indeed! And so it goes... books are read, animals go on adventures, every second as whimsical and silly as the next. Oh, and that white rice, it is now being used as kitty food because "Kitty's get really hungry you know."  I am certainly the luckiest mommy on the planet!

Next Post: Whimsy Whimsy and more whimsy!

Have something to say about Whimsy? 

Written a a fun post about your whimsical exploits?

Created a whimsical doll, sculpture or other artistic expression? 

This is the place to share it! 

New and old favorite posts are welcome here!

I have something to say about Whimsy!

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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My 13 bliss virtues are  

joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry,

community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, and surprise. 

 [Click on any virtue to see all the Everyday 

Bliss Posts on the topic.]