Resetting my perception focusing on having an attitude of gratitude!
April 28, 2021
Be Grateful
When I hear those words, an old cartoon comes to mind where a woman tells an orphan, “and be grateful too!” after pulling her around by her scarf. The girl waits until the woman is gone and shouts, “I am grateful; grateful to get away!” Even though that is a bit silly, my mind uses that to remind me that in all things I can find something for which to be grateful.
Sometimes when I try to pep talk myself through what is weighing me down, I hear a whisper say gently, “be grateful, this is a gift.” But my mind yells back, “be grateful? What can be good from this?”
Modifying our perception is how we teach ourselves to always find something which deserves our thanks.
I tend to start with things that ground me. Mentally, it goes like this:
I am thankful for air to breathe,
clean water to drink,
healthy food to eat,
a sturdy roof over my head,
my family, friends, pets,
a job I love and a Christian boss,
a church my children love and that makes me feel at home,
salvation and the hope of eternity with Jesus forever…
Then the list goes on and with those, I realize the setback, problem, or whatever reason for previous sadness isn’t really that important.
I have to shift my perception back to true reality. I have to ground myself back to what is truly important. My happiness is not based on my circumstances, but on my hope in Jesus. God has gifted me an amazing life and I plan to enjoy every moment of it as best I can!
An attitude of gratitude… That is what I say and what I mean!
I’m so grateful for every breath I take! Jesus, thank you for life!
On Saturday morning the beaches of St Johns County decided to open back for restricted times. No “gathering” though so we couldn’t take the baby shade tent which meant limited time for us due to not wanting baby burned. But we went!
Sunday at sunrise we gathered ourselves, tried to wake the more sluggish members of the family, and trouped to the beach. It was a gorgeous morning with nice steady surf and almost high tide when we arrived (well, arrived, changed Thea into her beach romper, let Lucas go potty, and walked over the ramp). There were dozens of surfers out and several fishermen with their coolers and pole stakes. Normal beach life. Actually, quite crowded for our experience, but then after the hurricanes the beaches are always full! Guess quarantine has the same effect as an extended hurricane on beach gatherings.
Thea was excited about the water today and ran out into ankle-deep water. It was cold enough to stop her. Lucas, though, wanted to go out where the surfers were! He couldn’t talk any of the big girls into going with him, so he would run into a wave, jump and land in a push up position half-floating and laugh heavy belly laughs. Tiny conch, mussels, clams, and assorted bivalve sea creatures were washed up under our feet by the thousands! Baby Thea loved them! She kept wiggling her toes and saying “tickle tickle!” The little critters ticked her toes as they burrowed back into the soft sand.
Lucas and Thea also waved and greeted everyone who passed. Anyone they noticed, they wanted to say hi to. Thea wanted to run to every other child and every dog she saw. One actually stopped to let her toddler greet Thea. Both babies were enthusiastic about seeing each other! It was so cute!
Suddenly, a creature was on a shell on the high tide line where I was looking for shells – and I called Becky (seriously, she did Marine Biology, she knows all sea life) to find out what it was. “Oh my! It’s an anemone!” and she gathered it carefully and rescued it by putting it back in the water. After a few more live anemone discoveries and “oh my!” shrieks by Kimberly and Becky, Thea grabbed a random shell, yelped “oh my!” and raced back to the shallow waves to fling the shell into the water like a frisbee. It’s the thought that counts, right?
It was a short visit as Thea’s tender arms let us know it was time to leave (Each person has a limit that we figure out and we go in when the first “red flag of warning” lets us know we are about to get burnt.) About an hour and a half of rescuing sea life, collecting beautiful shells, watching Jaquline and Lucas build a sandcastle, watching Lucas bellyflop into each oncoming wave, seeing Thea no longer be scared of the crashing waves, and watching the beauty of the morning sun in the length of the spring day.
The beach always refreshes me. I love it. I can breathe! This morning felt like a worship service. Our church has been closed for 4 weeks but being in nature is close – everything, including the little mollusks, the variety and beauty of their shells, the glorious waves, the sweet-salty spray opening up my lungs, all of creation shouts God’s glory!
Each of thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of those tiny creatures were each magnificent in their own individual beauty. Just like us. Each of us are independently unique and individually beautiful in our uniqueness. I glanced in my memory at the surfers on the waves; all different, each individual with the common bond of a passion for the stoke of riding the waves. Each of us beachgoers; all different, each individual with the common bond of our enjoyment of the beautiful beach.
This is the beauty in creation. The exquisite beauty of each small piece. Tiny grains of sand that look like gemstones under the microscope. We are more precious than diamonds – knit together by God.
I’m just coming in from work. Thea’s diaper bag and my purse is on my left shoulder, Thea in her carseat is in my hands, and my shoes and phone on top of her blanket.
I maneuver through the gate as Jillian opens it and tell the dogs to back up. They go about their normal business of sniffing everywhere on Thea’s blanket and clothes where my office dogs left a trace of an odor while I try to shoo them away and Thea giggles.
Lucas and Jaquline start telling me excitedly about their day – it seems Lucas wrote ones and twos today with Daddy. Jaquline fixed her bicycle by herself. Jillian rushes the dirty diapers to the laundry. I ask about Becky; she’s “hiding” in the playroom making doll movies. Kimberly is bouncing around like she borrowed Tigger’s bottoms.
The sweet chaos of returning home is silenced by Louis’ one sentence from the kitchen. I smell yumminess.
“She’s in the air now.”
“What?” Time stopped. The air didn’t smell like anything. Silence as I puzzled out that meaning. Louis is grinning. Fresh rolls get pulled out of the oven – or was it one long French loaf? I can’t recall.
“Who’s in the air?” I ask.
“Well,” Louis smiles, “Christina’s major called and they went up today.”
Oh. My. Goodness. Great gravy train and gollywompers! My 15 year old is in a Cessna!
This tiny thing. Seriously. (Yes, I always wanted to fly one too!)
Actually, there were two cadets who went flying. They went from Saint Augustine to Jacksonville and back. It was just an O-flight, and they each only got to fly for a few minutes, but still… she’s dreamed of this for years!
Christina came home so re-energized to dive into physics, more math, and an enthusiasm to continue toward her goal of pilot because, “I never wanted to come down! That thrill was so amazing!”
I haven’t even been in a plane yet ~ likely, Christina will be my pilot the first time!
When you close your eyes and see happiness, what do you see?
March 12, 2019
Happiness Is…
Each of us has a different view of happiness. This is because we are all unique individuals with varying dreams, passions, interests, and desires! Try this exercise:
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Think of the word, “happiness.” What do you see?
For me, happiness is:
…Lucas racing his bike around the yard (he LOVES that bicycle)
…a clear bright blue Florida sky (hopefully with ocean sounds in my ears!)
…playing chef or chef’s assistant in the kitchen with family or friends with happy music playing (I LOVE the community feeling when there are two or more of us cooking together.)
…the sound of the waves, the feel of squishy sand, the salty sea smell (for perfection, add a surfboard.)
…the smell of sweet hay, the sound of farm animals, the sight of abundant fruit on trees and in a garden
…a bright, open, cheery home with a sanctuary for visiting relatives (Grandma suite, anyone?)
…every time I picture this perfection in my mind, I see my family. Family, friends, community; living life together. This is what I picture as happiness.
I often imagine heaven as a huge garden, overflowing with life, where all of us spend quality time with each other tending the animals and plants as we were designed to do (okay, I know that’s simple and I’m ignoring the obvious awesomeness of actually seeing Jesus in glory, but you know, I can dream.) Happiness for me is being with my family.
A wise man said, “be sure if you join yourself to someone, they see happiness the same way you do.”
Another, “you can’t change someone, they are the only one who can choose to change themselves.”
Remember that you cannot be happy trying to force someone else into a mold you see. Enjoy them as they are. (We all have flaws, no one is perfect, and everyone is uniquely different!) Don’t try to change others, just allow them to be who they are. (A friend pointed out to me once that no one in the “Pooh-Bear” books “unfriend” Eeyore because he’s gloomy; they accept him as he is.)
When you close your eyes and see happiness, whom do you see with you? Those are the ones you love. That is what you treasure. Cherish time with those who make you happy.
Energy resonates in the clear skies of the seasons changing to autumn.
October 31, 2018
Electric Season
It’s officially autumn.
To me, it never seems like autumn until the sky goes that gorgeous “sky blue,” gentle cooler breezes tousle our hair, and there is a crisp energizing feel in the air.
During these days, I remember the exhilaration I felt as a child when they first approached.
Our first “autumn” day we’d race outside, full of a new form of energy that totally required an outdoor escape. If there was a swingset in the yard, (sometimes just a rope with a stick at the bottom) we were trying to touch the sky with our feet! On our bikes, (we called them horses, since we loved horses but never had a real one) we would ride round and round the house, singing Sunday School songs at the top of our lungs. If I ever had to describe the feeling in one word, it would be “freedom.”
Today the gorgeous electric blue sky makes me think about how God arranges things in seasons in our lives. Sometimes, when a new season comes, it brings the exhilaration of freedom. I’ve felt it before and not understood why.
Life seems to say, “you are trapped more than before, why are you happy?”
But my heart answers with a song called “Happy” because one verse basically says: bring it on, I’m happy and nothing can change that!
I imagine myself telling life that sometimes.
Because I have my root of happiness in Jesus, His joy is my strength, and even if life wants to throw stuff at me and claim I’m worse off in this new season than I was before (usually it’s that I can’t see the positive just yet), I know God has me in His hands – and I choose to be filled with that freedom exhilaration that comes with this new season!
Whatever God has for us, I sense the excitement, and I choose to focus on joy! Let this next season begin!
