Relative Something

Last night, I wasn’t feeling my best, and decided to lay low for the evening. It was a beautiful night and I didn’t want to miss out on all the action, so I plopped myself on the deck to be near Cyndie and Delilah while they were playing together in the back yard.

It was gorgeous out there. It helped me to realize the importance of stopping to enjoy the thrill of just being here in this fabulous paradise. It is too easy to talk about how nice it is here, like we did a lot with friends who visited last weekend, as they marveled over the place. It is easy to know how great a place this really is, intellectually, as I plod from one end to the other, toiling away on chore after chore. It is another thing to pause and enjoy it to the fullest.

Knowing and talking about it is NOT the same as stopping to actually experience it. I had a wonderful opportunity to do that last night.

It occurred to me that this was an extension of a theme that started earlier in my day yesterday. In a discussion with a mom of a 6-month-old girl, we marveled over the thrill of watching an infant discover themselves and the world around them. Baby’s new revelations bring shrieks of joy and laughter, from both baby and mom!

“Oh, I have arms!” baby must be thinking, “And look! They move back and forth like wings!”

We could all use an occasional reminder to revisit that child-like wonder about the miraculous number of things our bodies are able to do, and for amazing things in the world around us.

As I was preparing to crawl into bed last night, I happened to notice a “fix” I had hastily conjured up weeks ago, to keep our headboard from knocking the wall every time we turned over. When I put it in place, I didn’t honestly expect it to last, but intended to try it out to see if it would prove the concept. It has worked so well, I’d completely forgotten all about it.

Notice something today that time has led you to take for granted, and give it a renewed sense of child-like wonder in your mind. The world is no less awesome now than it was the first time we became aware of ourselves and our place in it.