Simple Pleasures

Cherish Life's Simple Pleasures * Live Fully, Laugh Often, Love Much * DREAM * IMAGINE

These are all favorite sayings I have around my house.  They're all things I believe, that I aim to do in my life.  Maybe for you too.  But, how often do we really live by them?  Often they just end up being "goals" and it stops there.  How often do we just truly *cherish* the simple things?  Do you laugh daily?  Are we really living fully?  I *dream & imagine * but it rarely goes much farther than that.  And how often do we take for granted the people we love and care about?

Recent events in my life have brought these things to the fore-front of my mind.  Due to my Mom's recent cancer diagnosis, it looked like the beginning of an unknown and difficult journey.  And although we've now received a good prognosis, it isn't over yet and still causes me to look at things from a different perspective.

It makes me want to be more deliberate about my life - and more spontaneous.  I recently found a note I'd written around the New Year...an affirmation/resolution...it read, "My #1 resolution for 2009 is to be more present in my life -as a wife, a mom, for my family, with God, life in general!"  I hadn't forgotten that, but it's definitely been a challenge.   It's a daily struggle with two small children and a husband who works a lot, and financial troubles, etc.  But I've tried.  So I thought, anyway.  I just get so caught up in my life that the little things  slip by sometimes.  I forget things...forget to DO things.  I'm so sick of hearing myself say "I meant to__, ", or "I forgot" or "didn't get around to it."  AAACK!  Just get so busy with - well - being busy!  I don't want life to pass me by and someday wonder where it all went.  I'm already doing a little bit of that and I don't like it!  Play with the kids - the vacuuming can wait!  *Get up an hour earlier and you would probably get more things done so you CAN be available to the kids and not feel guilty! *Go to bed earlier so you can GET UP that hour earlier! *Go see your grandparents! *Find time to get together & catch up with that old friend who's been on your mind!* ETC,ETC,ETC!

But, it's really getting clearer.  Oddly, at a time that's been clouded in uncertainty!  But really - isn't life itself uncertain?  As much as we'd like to think we can control it, we really don't have a clue what life will bring us tomorrow.  Things can change in a moment.  And I'm just really starting to "get" that God's clarity often comes in the midst of that heavy fog of uncertainty.  Probably because we're more vulnerable and open.  It's not always spelled out in big, flashy neon billboards or lightning strikes.  In fact - it rarely is!  Sometimes it's just simply PEACE.  That odd "peace that surpasses all understanding".  And it's in that peace -there amidst the turmoil & craziness life throws at us - where we can bask in those simple pleasures, and appreciate them all the more.

I love this passage:  Ecclesiastes 5:18-20:  "Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

I want to be more present!   I want to be satisfied & grateful at the end of my day, knowing I've put in a days' work and have enjoyed the blessings God has given me.  And to know that, on the bad days,  no matter how bleak things may look or how miserable I feel, there is always -always - something to be thankful for!