A Pleasant Encounter

I'm not sure where it came from, but the other day this was waiting for me as I left the house. A little pleasant encounter.

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Gratitude: What Are You Grateful For?

At this moment, I am grateful for:

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* Air conditioning - I can't imagine this heat wave without it and feel for those who are without

* Chocolate - when I am recovering from a migraine, I always crave chocolate. Maybe it's that love feeling that it give you.

* A toddler who tells me he loves me about 100 times a day

* Imitrex

* Cicada song - I love that sound

* God's grace - My thought life has been sucky of late; His grace sustains me

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* Tiger lilies

* red winged blackbirds

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* a refrigerator covered with toddler artwork

* a husband who not only loves me, but thinks I'm hot!

* Quickie, who snuggled with me all afternoon

My Quickie

Yellow Makes Me Happy

When I moved into my current abode 10 years ago, I painted every wall in every room yellow. Very pale yellow, and all kinds of different shades. Yellow makes me happy. I feel like I am living in eternal spring, my favorite season. I love yellow.

William talks about "lellow" frequently, and seemingly for no reason other than he loves it. He would wear his yellow robot shirt every day for the rest of his life if that were possible. His Hot Wheels are the greatest toy ever invented, but the yellow ones trump all. He is a compulsive dandelion picker, and seems to consider them the greatest gift he can give me. He won't let me check to see if he likes butter.

Ephemeral

-adjective

1. lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory

2. lasting but one day

The ephemeral nature of things; the transitory.

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:: A candle flickering flame

:: That whisper of perfume as she passes you

:: Those first blushes of love, so all-encompassing and consuming

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:: The lily, the spiderwort, the iris, the violet

:: The pinks and purples streaking across the twilight sky

:: A spoken word; there, and then gone

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:: That cloudy sailboat, or hippo, or castle in the sky

:: Waves that ebb and flow, and the footprints they wash away

:: That perfect snowflake; crystals formed by God's hand, melting away as they hit the earth

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They Make Me Happy

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When Will says "backaroni and cheese, please"

The constellations in the winter sky. Orion is my favorite.

Seeing fields full of Canadian geese resting during their migration

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Warmer days that follow chilly nights

Grape hyacinth buds peeking through the frosty ground

Cuddling in bed with my men, Tim and William

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A coat of fresh paint on an previously dingy wall

Feeling the sun on my face after the frigid weather of winter

Knowing that the cherry blossoms will pop in just a few weeks

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Sheep extra fluffy with their winter coat

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula hand cream - extra soothing for dry, knitty, winter hands

Waking up to find that I'm being held

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I'm Grateful: Joy

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This month of gratitude has been filled with joy. I find that I catastrophize an awful lot, but when i am forced to concentrate on all of the things that I have to be grateful for, the catastrophizing stops. And I feel contentment and joy. I have to say that I am grateful to Lisa for coming up with the brilliant idea of a month of gratitude; it has affected me more than I ever imagined it would. To that end, I am still going to incorporate grateful things in my blog to keep the practice going. I would recommend this assignment to anyone. You just may not realize how much joy there is in your life until you do it.