Weekly Fall Challenges.

[Picture: A Cup of Jo]

This fall I've been following along with Joanna Goddard and her weekly fall challenges.

Inspired by the documentary Happy, and the following study:

"Happiness isn't being cheerful all the time," says John Sharp, a psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School. "It's being interested in things—finding out more about something, learning how to appreciate something better, incorporating something new that fits with what you already have."

.......Joanna decided to post weekly fall challenges to keep life interesting.

I missed out on the "No TV for a Week" challenge, but hopped on board for the "Memorize a Poem" challenge.

It was very reminiscent of grade school. In a great way.

This summer Winnie received a package in the mail from her teacher. It was full of pictures and a note, wishing her a wonderful summer. On the back of the envelope she had scrawled this poem:

Happy hearts and happy faces
Happy play in grassy places
That was how, in ancient ages,
Children grew to kings and sages.
                                   - Robert Louis Stevenson 

That was the poem I memorized. I thought it was so sweet and completely fitting for where we are these days....

Then I saw the poem Joanna memorized and realized I may have set the bar a little low...

Otherwise
by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

I just love that. Don't you?

This week the challenge is "Eat Something New".
So, I picked up this Romanesca.....

And now, to figure out what to do with it!!