The $1,000 Plan: Day Twenty-One

It is Day Twenty-One of The $1,000 Plan and today I chose to seek soul food. The monotony of taking over yet another extra workload at home had really started to weigh heavily on me yesterday. So today I knew I had to consciously seek to bring some lightness and brightness along my life's path by personally having some much needed time away from the house & my household commitments.

Early in the afternoon I drove to Hamilton with my daughter and we went and spent several hours at the Hamilton Gardens. I have wanted to visit these gardens for more years than I can tell, and so I chose to make it finally happen for myself today.


There is nothing quite like getting some soul food to put a sense of balance back into life. My husband once said he would be happy to live in a retirement village and simply have a laptop at his disposal. That has however never been my idea of a good time or something that fulfills my soul looking into the future.


While at art school, I specialised in photography, and sadly over the years there has been less & less time to engage with my love of photography and art. Going to the Hamilton Gardens today reminded me about how much I value having visual beauty around me, particularly natural beauty.


I get so much enjoyment from being able to compose a photograph and capture in a moment of time, the beauty that light and a good composition can make, when out with my camera amongst nature.

A beautiful lush collection of flowers, the tangle of roots growing up along a mason wall, the changing patina of a metal garden sculpture..... these are all things that can cause my soul to feel feed and refreshed, if & when they bring my photographer's eye joyful pleasure.

Being surrounded by the diverse flora and fauna at the Hamilton Gardens and being able to take my time to capture various compositions via my camera lifted my spirits today and made me feel somewhat rejuvenated again.


I need colour and variation in my life. When things just coast along, day after day, in repetitive and monotonous patterns of daily life, I find it brain numbing and quite soul destroying.

I have no desire to simply work harder & longer to pay bills and never have pockets of fun and adventure along the way through life. While others may find it makes life blissful to just sit back in a chair each evening watching a Netflix video, that is not the life I actually find healthy for myself.


I need to spend some time working out how I can obtain better balance for myself going forward. Today at the Hamilton Gardens reminded me of how much I need to have time-out and time away, to see beauty in nature and literally find joy in a diverse range of places.

The $1,000 Plan needs to not just be about saving money, but also determining what does in fact make life all the more richer & better. I need to weave this all in, to create the tapestry of life I need, for a sense of wholeness and well-being, and to experience a life that is truly rich & truly abundantly wealthy.

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