As I sit here listening to the silence I started to roll around the things I am thankful for. Some are small where as others are huge. It's a given that I am thankful for health, a home, the boys, living parents, a working fella, ect. But if it were not for the little things that fill in the little gaps in my life, it would sure be boring. After my trip over the weekend I realized that I am happiest at home surrounded by all those little things. Here goes...
The smell of my sheets. You know, that crisp clean smell that we all believe that only our clothes possess and everyone elses stink!?
The sound of my ceiling fans that run 24/7 year around. Not for the breeze they produce but for the low rumble that makes my home, sound like my home.
The faint frogs, crickets, cows, dogs, coyotes, tractors or train whistle. One of which I can hear at any given time. Sometimes even all at once. It takes special ears that have lived in the country for many years to decipher these sounds and identify them if they all are serenading at once. It's lovely.
The freedom to walk around in my own home barefooted because I know it's safe to eat off my floors. Who knows who's nasty skanky feet sweaty feet have slopped around on hotel, condo or cabin floors. My OCD does not migrate well into a new place I'm supposed to call home for 3 days.
My porch. I can usually see all the huge things previously mentioned I'm thankful for from there in the evenings.
My sweet Zac lost two teeth in one day. Zac has been waiting for the moment he finally got to put two teeth under his pillow for YEARS! I'm sure what seemed like forever for him. Up until that day I sure that was the single greatest moment of his existence. It was almost identical to the celebration dance Peyton preformed the day he discover he had not only grown one arm pit hair.......but two......under each pit!! We all need to revert back to childhood. Find the small things in life that make us giggle like a kid. Being a adult is nothing like I had planned. It's full of bills, deadlines, appointments, death, disappointment, divorce at least once now days and jobs we did not intend to have. It's a cliche but it's true.....Love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't. And believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life-let it. Nobidy said that life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.
This weeks job you all of you who seem down.....and there are many of you. You know who you are.....no need for name calling. Go back to the day you were 5 years old and lost your first tooth. Remember how excited you were to know you were gonna put that tooth under your pillow and wake up to .50 cents. (BTW, teeth have increased in value as much as gas has in 25 years. Zac was rewarded 5 bucks for each of his) Now return to reality. If coming home is not like money under your pillow. If playing with your children is not like Christmas morning. If waking up each day healthy is not like a school Easter Egg hunt. If seeing a 70 year old couple holding hands does not make you want to be a better companion. If the laughter of you children does not inspire you to keep on keeping on. If you cannot find the simple joy in what should be our Tooth Fairy so to speak. Then reevaluate your thinking and make the appreciate changes. As I mentioned before......life is also full of death. Was today what you would have planned it to be if it were your last? Don't allow the last memory someone has of you to be a fight, a nasty word, hurt feelings, sad eyes caused by you on the faces of your children, family and friends. Do you have small things as well as huge things that make you happy to be alive? If not....who's fault is that and who should pay the price for your unwillingness to adore every ounce of life?