September 29, 2023
Author and illustrator Sophie Blackall describes herself as “a cheerful sort of person able to find the silver lining in just about any cloud.” But then, she hit some storm clouds, one after another. She endured the COVID pandemic, hit financial turbulence, worried about parents who were getting old, and ended up delaying her marriage to her partner. Meanwhile, the father of her children died. The accumulation of so much grief and misery caused her to lose sight of “beauty and wonder and delight.”
So she resolved to keep finding the silver lining and began to compile a list of “Things to Look Forward To” and invited other people to join her effort, and they did wholeheartedly.
“No matter how gloomy the clouds, I told myself, there is always something bright on the horizon — even if we have to squint to see it. Even if we have to create it ourselves,” she wrote in the introduction to her book, “Things to Look Forward To: 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Every Day.”
Her list includes commonplace, but profound joys such as “The Sun Coming Up,” “A Hot Shower,” “Hugging a Friend,” “Patting a Friendly Dog,” and “Feeding the Birds.”
On your healing journey, it’s important that each and every day — even while you’re hurting — to look for the simple joys that you can experience and are guaranteed to keep your head above the waves.
As Sophie said, “We can look forward to everyday things that will buoy our spirits and make us laugh and help us feel alive and that will bring others comfort and hope.”
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The simple things that bring joy are often right in front of us. We have to make a conscious effort to see them.
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