Tiny Traditions With Big Impact

Easy and inexpensive pursuits infuse the ordinariness of life with special meaning and beauty.

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

Here are things I created, perpetuated, joined in on the trend, or resurrected from a past era, for time at home last year with my family. Maybe there is something from the List below you try for a boost of happiness or connection with your friends, your family, or yourself.

1. Lego “pen pal” with Grandpa. My daughter loves Lego and she has a grandpa who loves Lego, but Grandpa lives far away so they don’t often play together. Every other month Grandpa sends a small Lego set to our house and my daughter builds it, takes a photo of herself with it, plays with it for a while, then disassembles it and repackages it up with the photo she took and we send it all to Grandpa. Then Grandpa builds it. The next month, our house sends Grandpa a Lego set and he does the same thing. We wait for the photo of Grandpa and the set to arrive back to us to build. It helps connect us across generation and distance.

2. Family hiking group. My dear friend started a weekly family hiking group that met (and still meets!) every single Sunday for a year. When we are able to attend we have the best time. Every Sunday our pals meet and spend excellent time in nature. Our kids play, we invest in our friendships, we gain support.

3. Weekly snacking cakes. The internet told me to buy this cake cookbook and my cake-loving, project-loving self started baking a cake a week since last fall. On bowl, one whisk, one enjoyable tradition that we eat together and share with friends.

4. Sunset checks. My partner and I rented a bungalow on the water for many years that gave us front row seats to some of the best sunsets imaginable. Pretty much every photo in my camera roll from 2012-2016 is a sunset photo. Out of habit and tradition we still yell Sunset Check! to this day when there is particularly beautiful evening light. Anywhere we are — home, car, faraway — we stop and admire. Our kids are committed participants. A communal family pause for awe has a cumulative happy effect on us all.

5. S.S.R. or some version of Sustained Silent Reading. For ten minutes a day, after I drop my daughter at school but before I log on to start work, I read. It is a treat just for me. It’s partly how I read so much and I get to chat with friends about books.

6. Weekly cut flowers. Truly not as expensive as it sounds. Our neighborhood has had a local flower delivery each Saturday in the past and a bouquet used to land right on my porch. Sometimes I buy at our weekly farmer’s market or from a neighborhood stand. I even grew dahlias in my backyard last summer to bring inside each week. Our household feels easy and fun and cared for with fresh flowers.

I love tiny traditions. Tell me, what do you and your friends and family do to support connection with each other? What tiny traditions do you have just for yourself?