February 10th - Welcome to day 10 of the Myrrhmade Love Where You Are Challenge!
Come on in and join us!
Day 10: How Far Have You Come?
There's a saying that the only time you should compare is to compare down - to make sure the person to whom you're comparing has enough and if there's any way you can help them.
I would add that you can also compare back.
We often forget about how far we've come.
Think back to your least favorite residence, or how where you live looked versus how it looks now. Even if you don't do a lot of repairs or renovating it's illuminating to reflect on the changes over time.
Daily Challenge: Compare where you are to where you used to be.
As adults, it's easy to forget what we longed for as children, or even when we were younger adults.
When I rented rooms in shared apartments, I longed to live with only my sweetheart.
When I lived in an apartment, I longed for a house with a yard so I could have gardens.
In our first house, I longed to be back in Western Massachusetts or Vermont, to live farther from the road, and to have more sun than our shaded lot.
Instead of comparing to what we want our lives to be and finding that we always fall short, we can see how far we've come from where we were and set ourselves up to have more of what we want from here forward.
How many of the things you have now are the result of your longings and your life?
Daily Mindset Mantra: I can do hard things.
Just as our surroundings "prove" to us our beliefs about ourselves, we can also search and find proof for what we want to be just by changing our perspective and the things we're seeking to see.
We can harness the power of our brains and choose the words we tell ourselves and make it easier to love where we are.
Bonus task: Take a walking tour through your home and take a mental inventory of how many things you dreamed of having that you now have.
My experience:
In this room where I'm writing this, there's a handmade side table that was made specifically for my husband and me by a beloved neighbor that was a wedding present.
There's a corner table desk that I purchased after daydreaming of something small and useful to put there.
There's the queen-sized bed that I share with my husband (when possible) and each of my kids when they were babies, the down comforter that replaced the synthetic blankets we had before, and the dreamy linen sheets that I coveted for years.
There's the closet that we built into this room that was an office when we purchased this house. There are the deep shelves and natural wood closet bar exactly how and where I wanted them.
There are semi-sheer white curtains over the windows that add privacy while still letting the bright sunlight in, which I saw in a magazine once and to this day make me think of warm breezes blowing fresh air in as though on an island vacation.
There are hand-printed cards from my business near the foot of my bed - a business that is the result of many years of searching for my "thing," taking classes at Smith College and doing internships to fulfill the requirements of my major and concentration.
There's a lamp on the bedside table that one of my beloved grandparents gave me for Christmas when I was a teenager. I remember their surprise at my request - it's a simple square box frame with ornate rice paper, perhaps not the thing a more typical teenager would request. I've glued it back together several times and keep changing the bulb for lower and dimmer wattage as technology allows.
The door to the kitchen is one I recently replaced all by myself. The door next to it that goes onto the back porch is one I chose and helped my husband install (after having helped a dear cousin install several doors over the years) in a different place on the wall to create a more cozy room.
The walls were sanded, smoothed, in some cases reinsulated and drywalled, trimmed, bead boarded, primed, and painted by me and my husband.
This room was not included in the original photos of the home and was the worst room in the house when we moved in. I recently looked at the few listing photos of the house and were it not for some mental anchors such as the tile on the kitchen wall and the large windows in the great room, it might be hard to recognize the interior.
We have come a long way. And that's just this house and the past five and a half years.
What about you? How far have you come?
Make sure to check back here tomorrow for the next challenge, the next tips, and the next dose of the Myrrhmade
#myrrhmade #lovewhereyouarechallenge
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