My Not That Exciting but Perfectly Fine Life

I finished my book this morning and was so inspired by it. It’s called Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by Shauna Niequist. Shauna has such a beautiful writing style. The book is really a series of essays about life. Each essay makes up a chapter. The essays include topics about forgiveness, jealousy, friendship, loss, love, etc. But all the chapters have much more interesting titles than what I’ve listed above…she has a unique way with words…very creative but not so much that you come away thinking…what was all that fluff she wrote about? Instead, you come away thinking…how clever. Her illustrations and word pictures drive her points home and leave you with a better understanding in the end. I was struck by her honesty and often times I found myself saying, “you too?” I could relate with her and came away thinking I could really enjoy being friends with this girl. The whole book was like a breath of fresh air to me. I’ve been inspired to celebrate the seemingly little things…that really are extraordinary once you stop and think about it. The last few weeks I’ve made a habit of writing down several things at the end of every day that I’m thankful happened during the day. I decided I needed to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness so I don’t fill my thoughts and heart with gloom and doom. It’s been very therapeutic and has kept my perspective in a good place. So I thought I’d share some of the things that have happened in the last couple weeks that I’m thankful for.

A couple weekends ago I headed to Bloomington to hang out with Claire and John. Claire is a true bosom buddy. We’ve known each other since we were six years old and every year our friendship grows deeper, stronger, and richer. I can’t thank God enough for her. In an effort to lighten my mood we filled the weekend with fun activities. By the end of the weekend we had played the Nintendo Wii, bought the exact same tennis shoes (no kidding – we can get away with it since we live in different cities), taken a few walks, gone to see Prince Caspian (it was opening weekend), and bought flowers at the local farmers market. I planted my flowers later in the week. It was the most therapeutic thing I’ve don’t yet, I think. It’s funny how flowers can make me so happy….but they do. Now they grace my deck and patio outside my front door. It was the first time I had played the Wii. Even though I came away stinking sore from it, I really enjoyed it. We played tennis, baseball, bowling, ping pong, boxing, and several other games. The boxing was what did me in. After the second time of boxing against Claire I found myself so sore that I grimaced that night whenever I turned over in bed. Nonetheless, I was thankful I could feel my muscles…I was alive and that’s something to be thankful for.

The following weekend Andy, Elissa, and Joshua came to Fort Wayne for a wedding. I had the joy of babysitting Joshua while Andy and Elissa attended the wedding. So, Joshua made his debut trip to the zoo with his Aunt Jamie. I must say, he’s still a little young to fully appreciate the entirety of the zoo. For example, he was more interested in the pool of water below him than the monkeys or dingo on the other side of the water. He was quite the trooper though and did really well while we were there. Christin, Bob, Thomas, and Chairith went to the zoo as well. Of course, we had to get a picture of Bob by the bobcat sign. We had a great time hanging out…and the weather was perfect.

Christin is another huge blessing in my life. She provides just the right amount of humor relief at just the right time. She’s also been really sensitive and attentive to my needs. This last week we took an evening to play frisbee golf at Shoaf park. I had never played frisbee golf, but found it to be a fun group activity. I’m not really that good. It’s just like golf…the lower the score the better. The best score I got was four. I almost got three but the frisbee bounced off the goal so it ended up being four. Oh well. Later that evening we went over to Bob’s place and played Rock Band...a video game made up of an actual guitar, drum set, and microphone for singing. Again…this was another first for me. I ended up playing the drums and very much enjoyed it. I played percussion in high school, but never learned how to play the drum set. So I enjoyed a taste of what that would be like.

I’m also thankful for the spunk and determination that seems to be resurfacing in me. Christin, Michelle, Leandra and I were playing frisbee on Memorial Day and Christin threw a wild one that ended up perched in a nearby pine tree. She had no intention of climbing it after assessing the situation, however; I couldn’t resist the challenge. I climbed through the branches in my tevas, brushing away the pine needles and the thorns intertwined with the tree until I finally reached up and grabbed the stray frisbee. It felt so good to tackle the dilemma at hand. My brother, Peter, doesn’t call me a monkey for nothing.

Speaking of Peter, he had a rather exciting event happen this week. He works for the Department of Education for the state of Florida and presented a U.S. flag to Governor Charlie Crist. The flag was flown in Afghanistan while he was serving there last year . I’m so proud of him for his willingness to sacrifice in service to this country. I’m also so thankful he’s back in the states and safe. It’s wonderful to be able to talk with him often.

I’m also thankful for my job. I’ve had a lot on my plate at work lately…well really that’s all the time with my job. But lately, deadlines have been approaching and I’ve had to stay busy to get the job done…which has helped me to focus my mind on the tasks at hand rather than drifting off and getting sad. I’m amazed at God and how He works. I produce a live talk show and occasionally I have to prepare encore shows when we’re unable to do a live show for whatever reason. Well, a few months ago I chose an encore show to air next week. Little did I know when I picked it out a few months ago how much I would need to hear the message packaged in that show at this very moment. The featured book in the encore is The Power of Letting Go by Pam Vredevelt. The very question she asks in her book and during the interview is the question I’ve been asking a lot lately. It’s simply this: How can I embrace today, release my yesterdays, and prepare for tomorrow? The answer in a nutshell is release yesterday by surrendering the why – instead look for what God can do and how he’s going to show his power through this hard situation. Embrace today by accepting that what is, is. And prepare for the future by starting to ask, “God, what are you up to?” I was encouraged by these three points Pam made in the interview.