"There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads--you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
I admit, I've turned into a grocery store snob because of Sprouts. It's just every time I walk in there and see stacks and stack of fresh fruit and veggies I feel this giant prevailing sense of satisfaction. I've realize with age that I really love food. Just not food in cans. Real food, out of a garden or off of a tree.
My brother was here...and now he's headed home. *Insert a long pause here while I go get a cup of coffee and have a bit of a cry*
When I think of my brothers I find it hard to find the words to describe how much I love them and how proud I am of them both. But, without fail, every time I leave them, or they leave me, I'm struck by this overwhelming thankfulness that a couple of my closest friends are the two guys I grew up sharing a house, a dinner table and a bathroom (tho some of us were in there longer than others *cough* you know who you are) with.
Inspired by this blog and by the girls in my small group on Thursday nights who are excellent at keeping track of what they're thankful for (as opposed to me, who is not), I'm trying to spend a lot of Lent focusing on the now and the positive that's in my life. By nature, on the inside, I am both sarcastic and pessimistic so it's been an interesting few weeks.
All that aside, however, here are the things that I'm thankful for right now:
It was about mid-morning and I was laying there on our couch, curled in a fetal position, my stomach one giant nauseous ball of woozy doom. And honestly, in my semi-conscious state, I was just being thankful that Em was more or less playing on her own this morning as sitting upright seemed beyond my physical capabilities.
Sometime in the middle of that haze of yuck, my 10 month old crawled over, pulled herself up, and planted a giant goobery baby kiss right on my face...and then crawled off giggling.
The best part of it being 18 degrees in the middle of "winter" is that Em and I can actually hang outdoors without bundling up. At the park today I learned a couple things.
Parenting tip #298 - Threatening movements with an empty costco stroller makes an excellent aggressive goose defense system.
