Richard was on the bed, too, until he got up to take the picture. We’re watching Netflix on my computer.

Can’t think of a nicer crowd to hang with after a long day.

I was listening to the radio on one of the ballet runs this week. The host was reading from some obscure Chinese book written hundreds of years ago about the things that really make us happy. And everything on the list he read was very, very simple and ended in the phrase (translated into English): Is not this happiness?

Here is my version of things that brought me sweet happiness today:

I play a new violin for the first time and my hands and the instrument seem to communicate with each other.

Standing in line at the grocery store, a mother apologizes for her children who are pushing up against me to find candy. I am shopping alone and can afford an extra degree of patience for children who are not my own.

I sit down with my son on the couch after Pack Meeting. He has a paper bag full of awards. I watch him pin each award carefully on his uniform in the soft light from the lamp. He tells me, “This is my favorite shirt,” and, “You helped me earn all of these, Mom.”

Driving home from a long day of errands, I hear my youngest son say, “I’m the luckiest boy in the whole world because I have so many collections!”

Two bags of Mother’s English tea cookies in the pantry.

Is not this happiness?

Favorite birthday moment of all time:

I was turning 7 or 8. I was walking home from school alone when I saw my mom coming toward me. Walking to and from school was always so terrible for me. It was the ultimate act of love in my mind if my mom walked with me to school. I remember one day she carried me. She knew it was what I needed that day. So, on this birthday I was totally happy to see my mom walking toward me. She met me near the Christensons’ house and we walked through the tough leathery maple leaves from the Mickelsons’ tree and then our feet swept and crunched the papery thin yellow leaves from the Stones’ tree. We opened my mail as we walked and she put her arm around me. That made me so happy.

I love simple gestures like that.

My thirty-fifth was full of simple gestures of love, too. And I’m thankful for those who took time to give them.

Boing!

Boing!

A Decade of:

Light blond hair and blue eyes with pretty speckles
Vocabulary surprises
Library trip after library trip
Lego acquisition
Piano compositions and performances
Insights well beyond his years
Rocks, screws, pieces of plastic, air soft pellets, and legos in the laundry
INVENTIONS!
MACHINES!
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!
Drawings of space ships and factories
A helper in the yard
Someone with a screwdriver handy
Baseball
Rock collecting

A Decade of… Daniel. We love you!

Doesn’t this picture just deserve a post? What shall I write about? Hmmmmm….

It’s been a week of spiritual highs for me. I’ve been savoring some of the moments and inspiration that have come to me this week but these things are not something easily shared. They’re still simmering, you see? If I were living where I’d rather be living (I’ll just keep the location my little secret), I’d be out walking right now and there would be colorful leaves on which I could gaze. I’d wander to my favorite spots, visit the old trees and smile at the people I met along the way. I think more deeply when I walk. Are you that way, too?

I think I live in Sahuarita to work patience into my soul. I find myself waiting… all. the. time. Don’t worry. We’re not waiting for life to get happy or something like that. It’s just that we have had to learn to wait weeks at a time to get a book we want or to find the time to “drive up tuh town fer supplies” (our neighbors say this in fun). There are other less trivial things for which we wait, too.

Maybe I’m in my last steps to the purchase of a Kindle. Or maybe this post is a reminder to be thankful for the little things, like a corner fabric store nearby or a book supplier near you.

Or maybe this post is about remembering this little truth: Even if I lived in the place I wish I could live, it wouldn’t change the essentials in my life. My real treasures are within my home & church. Living here has helped me focus on my family and that was exactly the thing for which I prayed just before Raytheon contacted Richard. My prayers have always been answered, so I try to be careful not to ask for anything too selfish. And this doesn’t mean answers have been immediate, or the way I thought they should be. But that’s a lesson in patience, too, isn’t it?

Patience without faith, though, is like trying to be warm without fuel. So, while I wait for many things, I’m trying to stoke my faith… So perhaps I’ll be ready when I don’t have to wait anymore.

Maybe you are having similar lessons in patience.