Up until now, no blog post has received as many positive comments as Glimmer, Glimmering, Glimmerest! (ENG) Wow! I’ve received beautiful photos of others’ glimmers, lots of thanks for raising awareness and providing inspiration, and even someone who said they decided to do an activity specifically because it would lead to a glimmer. From Missouri to Montana and from Antwerp to Leuven: glimmers seem to capture the imagination worldwide! Thank you all for the comments!
Glimmers have a way of touching people, and sharing them with others only makes the experience greater. And that’s why here’s a glimmer update! The following list consists entirely of new, recent glimmers. All of them are things, activities, or people that, over the past few weeks, have calmed my nervous system, made me happy, or filled me with love from head to toe.
1. Cycling in nature
Since I stopped escaping into books three weeks ago—and, two weeks ago, into worship music as well—I’ve gotten to know myself better. I’ve become much more in touch with my deeper self, with my emotions, and I’ve been praying much more often. Sometimes I experience that as wonderfully beautiful and then I feel very peaceful, but sometimes it’s also just really, really hard. Fears break through much more intensely now that I can no longer escape into worship music. It’s a general feeling of anxiety, and I can’t pray or meditate it away. What I’ve (re)discovered in the last few days is that going for bike rides in nature really helps with this. And unlike last summer, this time I’m doing it without worship music. Just God and me. And it works! I have to put in more effort than last year, because I moved to the city six months ago, so I first have to pass through about eight intersections on a busy highway, but once I’m past that, I’m richly rewarded! Just this morning I felt terribly anxious and thought I was going to jump out of my own skin. So I hopped on my (electric) bike! Half an hour later, I was cycling through the fields with the sun on my face, past the cows and horses, a little bunny hopping across the bike path right in front of me, and I felt all the anxiety just wash away. When I cycled back home about two hours later, I noticed I had a smile on my face, for no apparent reason. Although, maybe the cows, fields, and little bunnies were reason enough? As far as I’m concerned, this is a huge glimmer. Calm nervous system? CHECK!
I thought it was pretty cool to ride my bike under this hedge. Don't you think?
2. Digital Photo Frame
A few years ago, we gave our grandmother a digital photo frame as a gift. We all loved it because, as family members, we could send photos to her frame ourselves. So while our grandma was sitting on the couch, we could upload new photos to her frame from home via an app, ensuring she constantly received a fresh stream of photos. A perfect gift for someone with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It took less than six months for almost everyone in our family to have one of these frames in their living room. I thought it was a great thing myself, and I’ve recommended it to many people and even given it as a gift, but I found it too pricey to buy for myself. However, after writing the glimmer article a few weeks ago, I realized just how amazing a glimmer this frame really is! That’s why I bought one for myself, and even got it as a birthday present from my mom and stepdad (which is a glimmer in itself, of course!).
I’ve had it for two weeks now and I just love it! Every half hour (though you can, of course, set it to every 10 seconds, every minute, etc....) a new photo appears on my frame, and every time my heart does a little leap of joy. It’s so much fun to look at photos of the people you love! And what’s almost even better is when someone sends me photos. Knowing that someone is thinking of me and decides to put photos of their day on my photo frame is really lovely. For example, a few days ago I suddenly received a short video from my stepdad showing a little monkey holding its hands in a heart shape. I thought that was so sweet! Glimmer? CHECK!
3. Electric blanket
After buying an electric blanket for my bed at the start of winter, I’ve finally gotten one for the couch too! I hesitated for months, again because of the price. It seemed like a luxury item to me, not a necessity. But now that winter is over, and summer is still a long way off, I sometimes find it way too cold in my apartment not to turn on the heat, but at the same time a bit ridiculous to actually turn it on (after all, the sun is shining outside and it’s 18°C! (64°F)). Combine that with the higher gas prices due to the war in the Middle East, and the decision was made quickly: an electric blanket, it is! Well, I’ve had it for two weeks now, and I really wish I’d bought it much sooner! How wonderful it is! It might sound silly, but when I turn the blanket on ahead of time and only crawl under it once it’s nice and warm, there’s one word that always comes to mind: womb-like! I know, that’s a weird word, and I don’t even think it exists (well, it does now!). On an instinctive level, I always feel that this is what life in the womb must have been like: warm on all sides, protected, safe. I actually get that same feeling when I step into a warm bath or a hot tub. It’s a feeling of coming home, of truly unwinding completely for a moment. To me, it feels like going back to that tender, safe beginning, before we were thrown into the big, wide world. Coming home. Instinctively, it just feels right, that warm blanket. Glimmer? CHECK!
(Oh, and for anyone who might be wondering: I haven’t had to turn on my heat for two weeks now. So, in the end, not so bad on the wallet!)
4. Loose leaf tea
I’m a tea lover—I mentioned that in my previous blog post, too. I just love tea! And things have only gotten better (not worse, better!) since I discovered loose leaf tea about five years ago. Loose leaf tea tastes so much purer, more natural, and tastier than tea from a bag. It’s all-natural and therefore much healthier. And surprisingly, it’s a lot cheaper than bagged tea. For all these reasons, I mainly—but not exclusively—drink loos leaf tea. After moving to the city last October, I noticed I no longer made the effort to go to the little tea shop in my old hometown (those five busy intersections on the main road are just too much!). So I bought bagged tea at the supermarket, but that didn’t make me any happier. Luckily, about three months ago, I discovered a little tea shop much closer to home. It’s a cozy, old shop (it’s been around for a hundred years!) that sells fresh coffee beans, chocolate, and loose leaf tea. The tea I bought was really delicious, and their names just make the experience even better: fairy tale tea, cherry tea, fireplace tea, and vanilla green tea. How much cozier can it get? After visiting the shop for the first time, I told my mom all about my discovery with great enthusiasm. And guess what? My mom had actually shopped there fifty years ago, together with her aunt! Yeah, see, that’s the kind of thing I find really glimmering! When I was back there last week to stock up on tea, I really loved the idea that I was standing on the same floor where my ten-year-old mom had stood fifty years ago. It just makes the tea experience even better! Glimmer? CHECK!
5. A heartwarming compliment
Last week, I went to pick up my nephew and niece from day camp. As I was handed two jackets, a couple of helmets, backpacks, and a craft project, and was otherwise surrounded by a mob of screaming and shouting children—and could only pray that we could please (!) leave that awful place as soon as possible—a girl of about seven suddenly came up to me. She looked at me and said very spontaneously and calmly, “You’re really beautiful.” God, my heart just melted! How adorable was that! And suddenly, all those screaming children didn’t matter anymore, because that one little girl gave me—a complete stranger—a compliment straight from the bottom of her heart. And honestly? It made me feel good. I’ve been single for years, and when you’re not in a romantic relationship, you naturally don’t hear things like that. That’s just the way it is. As adults, we say it in very different ways, like: “You’re wearing pretty earrings,” “Your hair looks great today,” or “That sweater color suits you well.” I do get compliments like that often, especially from close family members, but in my mind, they’re always about the earrings, my hair, or my sweater—not about me. A little kid who just casually says that I’m beautiful—oh, that felt good! A glimmer? CHECK!
(Are you in a relationship yourself and usually pretty stingy with compliments? Think of this as a free tip to make your partner really happy for a moment!)
There you go, these were a few of my glimmers from the past few weeks. Of course, there were many more, but a person has to make choices in life! Hopefully, this inspires you to go looking for your own glimmers again. I wish that for you. Because life is so much more beautiful when we glimmer through it!
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