I am taken with the notion of romanticizing your life. Influencers offer us glimpses into romanticized living, and I think that’s why we’re drawn to them, even as opulent and out of reach as it might seem.

We love soft, glowing candles illuminating patterned textiles tossed over plush furniture. Our eyes soak in every detail of a photo that captures a moment in time at daybreak, clean kitchen counters, coffee brewing in the background, a cat looks on lazily from a windowsill as the morning sun filters through plantation blinds. We want to be there. We want to smell the coffee and sit curled in a blanket. We want that glow. We want to pet the cat! It looks like it feels good, and we want to feel good.

So why don’t we? Why don’t we romanticize our living rooms, our mornings, our lives? Our cats?

We should.

Romanticizing our life simply means letting it be lovely. You can MAKE it lovely, of course, but LETTING it be lovely is something else and comes first.

“Letting” requires mindfulness. Being mindful that even the smallest things around you are perfect just they way they are, and they are pleasing just the way they are, brings about a sense of beauty, appreciation, contentment, and peaceful joy.

How your side table lamp casts shadows on the ceiling, the spider web glistening in the corner of the window, the low and oddly calming whir of the dishwasher… if we’re mindful, the most unassuming sights and sounds become the most captivating and comfortable.

Once you’re mindful, the “making” can happen. Having become aware of your surroundings, you can evaluate how you feel among them. How do you want to feel? Create that feeling.

This morning I prepped breakfast, pancakes and bacon, and took everything I needed for cooking outside on the Blackstone. It was cool, squirrels were chasing each other through the trees, a breeze carried the smell of my sizzling bacon across the yard. My long dress pooled around my feet when it wasn’t being tossed gently in the wind.

It was a vibe. It felt good, the whole scene, from the feel of the tongs (*click click*) in my hand to the sensation of the breeze on my face. It felt good in my heart in that I was cooking at my very own nice house on my very own nice porch for my very own sweet family.

Notwithstanding, the dogs barked their heads off such that I could hardly hear myself think when a jogger passed along the street out front. Lordy, there were at least four who ran past within a 20-minute period. I clumsily dropped the plastic top to the cooking spray in the pancake batter and got it all yucky. Some grease splatters managed to land on my new table cloth nearby. I have two new mosquito bites.

I giggled a little and wondered if the influencers I see on Instagram have goofy moments that momentarily kill their presumably flawless aesthetic. I like to think that they do.

We enjoyed our breakfast together, then Keith started to clean up and wash the dishes.

“I like our house,” he said.

“I like our house, too.”

I shared with him my take on romanticizing one’s life, being aware, taking in the details of things, creating an environment that is just the right levels of cozy, practical, and ambient, with a little touch here and there of froof and zhuzh for extra bliss.

And we agreed that gratitude was most of that. You can’t romanticize your life without tremendous appreciation for what you have, making the most of what you’ve got to work with, and being able to improve upon it all to make it even better. Being thankful for it, taking care of it in an effort to preserve it, is as necessary as being mindful. You can hardly have one without the other.

Now the dogs are asleep on the floor, I’m about to pick up a book for a while, then I’ll go pack up for our Friday Adventure moved to Sunday.

Brady and I board a train bound for New Orleans bright and early tomorrow, and we can’t wait for the experience. I’ll be sure to take you with us. We would love to share our adventure as it unfolds.

I hope I’m teaching her to romanticize her life, to be aware of the beauty in little things around her, to love herself enough to know she is worth comfort and pleasure, to be grateful for every opportunity to squeeze all the richness from life and enjoy it, that even if you make a mess and get distracted it’s all still beautiful.

Go revel in life to the fullest today, Y’all. Let it be lovely. Make it lovely. Be grateful. We will see you on the train!

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