Tell me, how did you wake up today? With dread or anticipation? Worry or joy?
There are indeed days when I wake up feeling negative. I'm anxious. I'm rushed. I'm not smiling and I'm not in the now of what is right - just troubled by what isn't lining up for me or bothered by the length of my to-do list.
Do you ever feel this way? Usually these mornings follow a rough day and I carry that anxiety with me over into the daylight.
But there are also days when I wake up feeling light and full of joy. Like I'm just six and it's the morning of my birthday. I feel that so much goodness is coming toward me. The day holds magic and promise. I wake smiling and nearly dance out of bed and into the day.
Have you felt this way too? Maybe the day you leave for a trip or the day after you got some outstanding news? That can carry over into the next day as well.
Yet sometimes how I wake seems to have little to do with the day before. It's just the energy that I am beginning this day with. It that inexplicable smile or brimming laughter that I can't explain. It just is. (Or on the flip side it's that sour attitude that colors everything I do.)
The two types of mornings lead to very different days. Which path do I choose? The more grumpy or worried I am the more messes I make of my day.
The difference is in my perspective. And my perspective is my choice.
~Did someone use up all of the hot water or am I blessed with clean water that flows from my tap?
~ Is it a messy craft table or the sign of my children's creativity?
~Is it a sticky kitchen floor and filthy stove top or evidence that there are pickles in my pantry and breakfast in my family's bellies?
~Is it a weed-filled hopeless garden or proof that the rain fell in abundance?
~Is it more laundry than I can comprehend or evidence that we played in the rain until we were soaked through and had other adventures that left our clothes and towels caked with mud and sand?
~Is it me still living in town and not yet in the country or is it my family in a safe, beautiful home where my daughter was born - a home that keeps us warm and dry and a home that we love?
Today I am choosing joy.
I am choosing gratitude, appreciation, and presence in the now. Because now is all that we have.
I am choosing to not look too far down that to do list as to get overwhelmed but instead find gratitude and appreciation at every turn. Because we've had a hard few weeks over here, but the reality is that life is so sweet and so good and our blessings overflow.
If you want something to get you moving in the right direction, this does it for me. I've shared it before but I just can't get enough of it. While the photos are lovely I often just listen while I go about beginning my day.
I want to hear from you. What blessings do you see today, however simple or however small? Please share them in the comments. I so love hearing your thoughts.
Love,
Rachel
