These are a few of my favorite things...

Today, we are talking about what connects us to our joy.  We get very conflicting stories about joy and fun.  On one hand, we are told that we should work hard, that live requires work, and that sometimes you just have to do things even if you don't like them.  But the rewards of that is being able to do the things you like. 

Typically we are looking at joy as a trade-off.  We are told to want things, but that in order to have them, we have to give up other things, that we might also want.  We are told that money will let us do fun stuff, but to have it we have to work and give up our time (which we could use to do fun stuff now).  We are told that we should look a certain way, but in order to do that we have to give up foods that we love.  We are told that certain things are dorky, or weird or unnecessary, and that we shouldn't like them (because other people don't like them).

Everyone has things they love!  Everyone has things that bring joy to their lives.  If the things that make you happy make your life better...embrace them!  YOU are the only one who can tell you if something is good in your life or not.  No one else can tell you that spending the evening watching a tv show isn't 'better' for your whole Self well-being than going to the gym and reading a book.  But no one can tell you that working hard at the gym isn't going to make you happier either!

I like a lot of things...like a lot of lot of things!  My problem isn't typically finding stuff that I like, it's choosing what to spend my time on, between all the things I love.  And I have to deal with a lot of judgement about what I like, because many of the things I enjoy are not mainstream or are not well understood.

So, I'm going to share some with you!  And I'm going to talk a little about why I love them.  Maybe I enjoy things you never thought about, and your interest is peaked.  Maybe you will think about some of them in a different way.  Or maybe you will just walk away today knowing that there is a crazy lady out there who likes crazy stuff!

I really can't talk about things that bring me joy without talking about my cats.  We have three, Sasha (the Tortie at the top), Shadow (the black cat in the center), and Nibblet (the one that Shadow is sitting on....lol).

I have always loved animals, and I adore my cats.  All of them are loving and friendly, and they all have distinct personalities!  I spend a lot of my day, talking to them (out loud...I always say I got cats so I wouldn't be the crazy lady talking to herself...but I still do that too!), petting with them, playing with them, or just cuddling with them.

They pretty much follow me around (when they aren't asleep).  If I sit somewhere, chances are there will be a cat sitting with me (even here at my computer chair!  they find a way...)  One even cries if I don't let her come into the bathroom with me (Sasha is a little codependent...)

I also love making stuff with my hands.  If I can fiddle with something, if I can do it by myself, especially with manual type tools, I'm all over it.  I started doing origami when I was in grade school, and there is something so soothing to me about folding those perfect edges and making nifty shapes out of simple pieces of paper.

For me, most of the time, crafting is about the making, not about the having.  I don't tend to keep stuff I've crafted, I like giving things away as gifts.  I really enjoy knotwork as well, and working with string to make jewelry is something I've done since I was a child too!

I am a big fan of books!  Paper books, picture books, digital books, blank books....I love me some books! 

Our bookshelves are overflowing, there are books tucked all over the house.  I read about almost anything and everything.

I also adore pretty journals, so have quite a collection of those.  I like to keep my journals dedicated to just one thing, so many are half-full, and I always have several blank journals, just in case I need to start a new one!

And then there are cards...oracle cards, tarot cards, rune cards, playing cards, collectable card games.  There is something really cool about cards, it is a tactile sensation combined with art and function.

I have dozens of decks, and dozens more I would love to have.  I use them for divination, for personal exploration, for story prompts, for meditation, and just the pure joy of looking at them.

I learned to shuffle cards when I was little, and we flew a lot.  There is something very satisfying about feeling the cards move between my hands.

Similar in a way to cards, I adore dice.  I started collecting dice for playing roleplaying games, and mostly for that you want ten-sided dice as well as polyhedral dice (which come in a variety of sides, most of which are based off of the Platonic solids which is very cool).

But my personal favorites are symbol dice!  I like dice with pictures or symbols that represent things.  I actually have more dice than pictured here, and more on the way. 

This is another thing that combines function with tactile sensations and a bit of art.  I use my dice for gaming, for story inspiration, for divination and just to fiddle with.  There are dice in my backpack always, on my desk and often in my purse. 

I'm also a computer gamer.  I love playing games where you get to create a character and take them on adventure....basically digital roleplaying games!  I love exploring ruins in a game and finding treasure.

I also love playing with clothes and housing in games.  A lot of games, especially the big online ones, let you dress your character up, and I will collect clothing and make all kinds of outfits. 

Many also let you have a house to decorate, which is lots of fun too.  It's sort of my adult version of playing make believe or playing with dolls.

Puzzle games are also really fun, I like figuring out the logic of how they work and how to solve them.

And, we've recently gotten into board games, which are a blast!  There are a ton of really great board games out now, in so many different categories.

This one is a game about building the best library....you have to collect book cards, and then shelve them (of course alphabetically!), and you want your collection to be balanced and well rounded. 

I also really love games that involve a dungeon crawl (yes, it is a theme for me lol), and deck building games.

Throughout my life, tons of people have told me I shouldn't be spending so much time on my hobbies.  And it always struck me as ironic, that those same people would be fine with the time I spend on my hobbies if I was only doing hobbies that were more in line with what they thought were worthy.  But I love the things I love, and I won't give them up just to make other people happy.  I have learned to stand up for myself, to own my likes, and to do what makes ME feel good...instead of what other people are comfortable with.