On Simple Joys and Self-Care

It’s getting harder every week to come to this space and blog about simple beauty and joy.  What can I say?  We simply don’t live in a time when we can be frivolous and go about our lives as if it were business as usual, oblivious to geo-political developments in the US and the world.  No matter what our political inclinations are, there’s no way we can breathe easily these days. There’s just too much unrest and discord in the news and social media as well as daily conversations that we often just feel exhausted and a little depressed.

Yet it is during stressful times like the one we are in right now when we actually need more self-care, often in the form of simple joys.  We still need to find a moment in our days when we can recharge —  read books, go to yoga class, laugh with a friend, and go to our happy place.  Because at the end of the day, no one will hand these things to us on a silver platter and tell us we deserve these pleasures.  We must guard our simple joys zealously to keep going, to continue fighting and resisting, for the road ahead is long.

Personally, my simple joy and happy place is a museum, any museum.  Seeing works from various artists and learning the process in which they create always give me tremendous joy and satisfaction.  Last week, I went to the Met Breuer and checked out Kerry James Marshall’s exhibit before it closed.  Marshall’s inspiration and approach to painting and his subjects are refreshing.  In depicting African-American life in the US, Marshall used a painting style that was largely influenced by diverse styles from the Dutch masters to Jackson Pollock and Romare Bearden while adding a distinctive touch into the mix.  The result is eclectic, diverse and full-bodied masterpieces that use classical methods while pushing the status quo.

What do you do to tend to your soul?  I’d love to know…