today

This is the question:
toothpaste smeared on my bathroom sink
This is the answer:
thank you

Just for Joy

I'm not the kind of person who really enjoys shopping and rarely buy things on a whim, but I was at the Dollar Tree with my hubby the other day looking for a giant bubble wand and a gag gift when I ran in to this little guy.
I couldn't help but smile...he's just so darn jovial. Then I picked him up and instinctively gave his little plastic case a small squeeze...and found myself laughing out loud at the combination of the faint popping sound and the frolicking clown inside. So for a buck, I brought him home. My kids were as impressed with him as I was and have found endless delight in his popping case. Then the unmentionable happened...removed from his case, the little glass clown slipped from Sarah's fingers and broke. I felt a sudden twinge of irritation and the urge to scold her...remembering then that I had also purchased some super glue, I scooped up the clown and in moments our joy purchase was again standing atop his ball making us all smile. I've glued him once more since then, but we're all still smiling.

A lesson in impermanence...everything changes. Glass breaks. Joy can be found in simple things outside ourselves. But lasting joy? That comes from within.

I don't want anything

This has been a very busy July. In the course of one week we had two back yard campouts celebrating July 4th, had the family over for more celebrating, made our weekly storytime outing, went to a really fun magic show, spent a day at the beach, made an evening outing to the local free concert series to hear some great folk music and let the kids dance their hearts out on the huge amphitheater lawn and made a yummy, messy icecream stop on the way home. Then a wedding and reception on Saturday rounded out our week. We've had a lot of fun and the kids have made many interesting comments about our various adventures. But one heartfelt declaration from our middle child made me stop and smile really big:

We have a princess at our house, she's four years old and like most four-year-old's she has a running list of things she wants. So we often talk about learning to be content, being thankful for what we have. I spent Saturday evening at a wedding reception watching our little princess in her favorite lilac-colored floor-length dress dancing blissfully, gracefully , ballerina-like to the music for over an hour with few breaks, and then only to come over to hear me say how beautifully she danced, then returning to the floor with a glowing , contented smile. Later that night, as I helped her get jammied and tucked into bed, she looked up at me and said in a dreamy sort of way,
"After all that dancing tonight, I don't feel like a want anything anymore."

We all know that things don't make us content. Things are just things. (I know, really profound, hey?") The Princess learned something Saturday night that I could not have taught her with words, because she felt it...the joy of just being. She has found inherent to who she is a love for music and dance, just as she has found that same joy in paint and play-dough. She is not My Little Pony or Disney Princesses, those things she wants. She is a created soul who finds joy in being the soul God created. It is my job to give her opportunities to experience that joy in the midst of cultural distractions that try to make us believe that things will make us happy.

True peace? True joy? True happiness?: Knowing the Creator and knowing what He created us for.

Choosing the Better (part two)

A few nights ago after getting the kids to bed, I walked downstairs and past the den where on the floor still lay a pile of clean clothes waiting to be folded and put away. I lamented , "Ohh, I still have to do the laundry." And my dear husband said, "If someone wrote a comic book about you, your arch-enemy would be the laundry and the dishes." I just laughed and said, "You're right," and curled up next to him on the couch. The laundry was still on the floor in the morning, but it is not there today.

I will not let what is undone steal my joy for the moment.