Winter magic and crumpled dreams
3 Small Items of Great Delight | PLUS...Build Your Book in Six Weeks
Hello friends,
Welcome. Today I bring to you 3 Small Items of Great Delight, where I share how delight has appeared in my life. It’s about looking for unexpected gifts. It’s about connection. So far, this is what I know:
Delight is to be shared.
Delight is to be offered in friendship.
Delight is to be centered and made into art.
Delight is a mindset.
Below are my discoveries this month. But I want you to join in. So when you’re done, look for the Leave a Comment button. Tell me: What delights you?
Then keep on reading, because today I am also sharing some updates I’m truly excited about, like:
Build a Book in 6 Weeks - Beginning later this month, a course to kickstart your nonfiction book
My new website - After six weeks of redesign, it’s finally ready!
Book Coaches Canada - Working together to make sure writers have the right support
You are always welcome to share these posts, by the way! The more, the merrier.
3 Small Items of Great Delight
1. Frosty Windows
Delight in Winter
“Close the door! Don’t let the cold in!” I yell, too late.
Nearly every day, my son, doing exactly what 13-year-olds do, stumbles out to the bus stop, bleary-eyed and cranky, leaving the inner door to our porch open.
Earbuds in, he doesn’t hear me call him. So I get up, lurch towards the inner door and close it quickly before the winter air seeps in and my coffee goes cold.
Our porch in summer is a wonderful place to be, and I’ll take my laptop out there for a couple hours to enjoy the sun through the windows before it heats up too much. But now, January temperatures are here, and the porch is closed for the season. The dog misses it, too, and she whines each day at the door, hoping today — surely today! — she can finally return to her sunny spot. ”No, not today,” I tell her, and wish it wasn’t true.
Sometimes I open the inner door and peer out and say, “It’s not that bad, is it?” And then I stand there a few more seconds and realize it is. And that’s when I notice the frost that speckles the window panes.
The toasty, warm air of the house greeted Lady Winter, and we have been gifted scenes of another world on the windowpanes, each design unique as a snowflake and as perfect as any museum masterpiece. Magic.
I dance lightly in my sock feet, the floorboards too cold, as I examine each one, a smile growing on my face and my coffee growing cold.
2. Floats
Delight + Hay Bales and Blankets
You know you live in a small town when…
I have about thirty answers to that fill-in-the-blank.
…When golf carts drive down the street in early morning.
…When you go to the grocery store and come home with gossip.
…When you go to the local hotel-slash-drinking establishment for yoga lessons.
And also:
…When your uncle can pull you and twenty family members through the streets of town on the back of a Christmas float.
It’s true! My uncle and aunt built the float and each year the small ones get a few rides on it. And then we big ones join them in a tour around town singing Christmas carols and and shivering. As we pass by lit-up windows, we see people crowd the frames and wave at us and we wave back. Small children jump in excitement at the appearance of a one-float parade. Our children sing louder. This year, we made stops to greet cousins and relations who came out to wish us happy holidays.
I once lived in a big city. But we never got to do things like this.
3. Old Daydreams
Delight + Discovery
It only took 13 years, but I finally cleaned out our cabinet of miscellanea. You probably have one: The cupboard or drawer where you leave items that are important enough to keep but not important enough to have a place of their own. By the time you take inventory, you no longer need most of it.
This time, though, I discovered a rumpled paper at the back, behind a box of napkin rings (only two left) and an elastic-wrapped wad of Canadian Tire money (I know, I know, but I love those old bills!).
I pulled out the ball of paper, ready to toss it in the recycling bin, but then I saw my handwriting. I smoothed out the page.
Ah! It was my five-plan from December 2019. The one I drew out in response to a question asked by the authors of Designing Your Life.
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?
I had never been able to answer that question before — it always stumped me in job interviews — but after working through the Designing Your Life process, I was finally able to answer it.
In five years, my kids would be teenagers, no longer children. They would be more independent, more interested in friends than their parents. They would be busy with activities and looking for jobs.
In five years, our parents would be well into a new decade, in their seventies.
In five years, my husband and I would be nearly fifty.
What could I do over the next five years to enjoy my children, be more available to my parents, to feel like I was moving towards something exciting? I did what I do when I am thinking; I doodled and dawdled over my thoughts.
When I looked at my five-year plan, I saw that some of it didn’t come true. We never did drive across Canada to British Columbia and I haven’t spent any time canoeing.
I pored over my scribbles and looked more closely. Huh! Look at that!
“Find what makes you enthusiastic,” I had written. “Experiment.” I drew, in pen, a dog and a beach scene. I wrote “Disney.” (Why? I wonder now.) “Change of work.”
We did get a dog. I did spend more time at the beach. We didn’t go to Disney, but we did go to Universal Studios. And I was going to leave my job. I did that. It was heartbreaking in many ways, but I did it. I started my own business and it was hard but it was also empowering. I did experiment. I am still experimenting.
This old page did go to the recycling bin, but I snapped a photo of it first.
Look at that, what I did! I thought. Look at what happens when you write it down.
Your turn!
What has delighted your heart lately? Leave a comment below and share a moment where you were connected entirely and suddenly with life.
Other News & Updates
BUILD YOUR BOOK IN SIX WEEKS • Are you writing a book in 2025? Get ready to write with my 6-week book planning course. We meet every Friday from January 31 to March 7, and I’ll give you exercises and assignments to begin your book. Get clear on your purpose, identify your ideal reader, and build an outline. We meet early in the day, before the day gets going, at 8 a.m. EST, so bring your coffee or tea and join in.
NEW WEBSITE • What is it I do? If you’re fuzzy on the details, head over to my new website at www.dinahlaprairie.com. You can find out more about book coaching and the other services I offer.
BOOK COACHES CANADA • I have the best coaching colleagues around, and now you can meet them yourself. Come find out more about the book coaches who are working here in Canada. We serve writers of most genres, at all stages of publication. There is so much experience and knowledge among our members. Browse our coach directories to see who can serve you best. You can follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook to get updates and articles throughout the year. We launched Book Canada last week with an article by Alex Van Tol called “What Does a Book Coach Do? And Why Should I Work With One.”
Do you love reading about writing? Join my WhatsApp Community broadcast list where I drop links to the best articles I’m reading and new opportunities for writers.
One of my daily delights: a popsicle. Even in January! As I sit here wrapped in a fleece throw!