Thankfulness & Brain Workouts

J U LY 4

I'm blogging everyday for the month of July, sharing what I learn about what it means to be a steward of time. Time is so precious. This series is a personal experiment where I hope to get a better look into where I invest my time, and how I can better shape my life to serve God through my actions, words, and priorities. Look up the tag "July series" to view each post. 

Productivity: 

Submitting a Physics assignment 

Getting my passport photos taken, and of course practicing my "non-smile" face beforehand. All of the no smiling called for an extra smiley picture. ;)  

Costco grocery shopping and the full on lunch of samples that accompany it.

Working on some very challenging Calculus questions 

Completing a "things to know" sheet. Essentially, it is a bunch of definitions that I find myself often wondering "hmmm, what is that?" A few of the items on my list were LDL and HDL cholesterol, communism vs. capitalism, and soluble vs. insoluble fibre. Am I the only one who does this..? Haha :) 

Chores chores chores. Today was a cleaning day!

Rest & Enjoyment:

A very healing conversation with my mom about forgiveness & friendship, and in the middle seeing the most beautiful butterfly. It stayed perfectly still while I moved closer and closer to take the picture above.  

A delicious berry sundae.. Omnomnom. 

Watching an episode of Father Brown with my family. If it's British and has some sort of mystery, we've probably seen it. 

Reading Monday Mornings in the evening 

Take aways:

1. The only way to spend our time is by being thankful. In addition to other things, my mom and I talked about blessings this morning. It's easy to focus on the negative and quickly over look the beautiful things happening in life. My mom called me out on it this morning. I was feeling a little down, and a good dose of my mom and her honest, to the point, genuine love was more effective than the biggest mug of tea (and a mug of tea is pretty effective). 

2. Time spent working out your brain is time well spent. Have you ever mastered a tricky math problem, written an excellent paragraph, or read a great chapter of a book? My brain loves me for it. The more "intellectual workouts" I do, the more I can feel my brain laying down healthy neural circuits (that's a good thing.. :) 

Thank you, July 4th, for teaching me that there really is no time to live negatively or with any unthankfulness. There is so much goodness right here under our noses. Thank you for showing me how important it is to spend some time each day giving our brains a good workout; to read, to inquire, to ask questions, to take the time to find answers.

Much love, Vivi