The Joy Jar

I was recently reading my timeline and saw that someone had retweeted a Tweet. The original tweeter was not someone I know. The person the tweet was about, I didn’t know. It read:

“Go out, get drunk, be who you want, kiss who you want, be free, love madly & live greatly. @_____ only got 34 years. Don’t waste yours”.

It caught me at a particular time on a particular day where I was thinking about family and thinking about what I wanted out of life. It caught me and I spent a moment reading the words, I clicked on her blog and read her last post, a post written by a friend letting everyone know of her passing. I caught a breath in my throat and held on to the sofa and thought. A LOT.

Life can often be so short. I know this more than anyone. However, I’m a reluctant adventurer. I don’t like going to new places, trying new things, meeting new people. I do all of these things, but it isn’t comfortable. I rarely travel, certainly not to far-flung places.

There are, though, lots of things I want to do in my life. I wanted to run and I did. I spent 2 years before kids running 10ks and half marathons. I wanted to blog and here I am. Now I want to learn to knit or crotchet. I’d like to change jobs. I want to do some more further education, perhaps a Masters. I hope to get around to these “biggies” there are also smaller things I’d like to do. I want to do painting, drawing, creative things. There are some walks I’d like to do, stately homes I’d like to visit. How do I get around to all of these things?

So I went back to Pinterest and all those piccies where people decorated jars for particular reasons. Then I went off to a department store, got myself a lovely big jar and tonight Pickle and I decorated it.

The Joy Jar

So, the idea is that each member of the family writes down something they would like to do on a free day. Ideally we would pick from the jar when we know we have an upcoming weekend day that we have no plans for. They don’t happen often and I’m a bit of a sucker for staying at home, but I’m going to push myself.

Pickle kicked it off. The first one in the jar above is “Ice Skating”. Something she really wants to do and we keep fobbing her off. Which seems very wrong and perhaps we should just get on and let her try it.

So there you have it. Corny name maybe, but The Joy Jar is now sitting in pride of place in the kitchen ready for all our ideas. All we have to do is write them down, pop them in and grab it when we are looking for inspiration.

I’m trying to grab life with both hands. You just never know when it might slip from your fingers.