November 22, 2007 by enchantingsunshine.

My pants hurt. A lot. They’re cutting into my abdomen and were before we sat down to eat a feast. After a wonderful meal, surrounded by love, and with a full belly, I feel the need to reiterate how lucky I am.

I also feel the need to mention how I’ve been vindicated, for maybe the first time ever. Dinner was an intimate gathering of my mom, my husband, one of my best friends and me. The conversation was pleasant until, out of nowhere, my mother mentioned how lucky I was that I never had to have hand-me-downs because I had an older brother.

I couldn’t let that one stand (in fact I had a post not long ago on that very subject). My mother looked stunned when I refuted her falsehood, claiming to not remember those polyester, purple pants passed on to me from my brother (there was a whole set of them in different colors). A bit of a dispute erupted about the accuracy of my memories, and charges were made that I had drawn faulty conclusions and created memories. A phone call to my brother confirmed that indeed, both of us suffered the humiliation of those purple checked pants. I have never felt so vindicated and never loved my brother more. My mother continued to try to deny both of our memories, but in the end, with the help of a professional, my friend, who is a psychiatrist by trade, elicted the much desired and rare concession of defeat and peace was restored.

After partaking of a small piece of each dessert, we sit together watching the DVD of the latest version of Die Hard. I’m not as interested in the movie as I am in being here and part of this moment. Years from now, I know I’ll reflect back fondly to this night. The temperature has dropped, the candles are burning in the fireplace, and in this cozy room, I am enveloped in love.

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November 22, 2007 by enchantingsunshine.

I’m what’s known in biological terms as “a bad seed.” There are certain lessons that I seem fated to learn the hard way. Here’s a short list (and sadly, trust me, there’s a long one):
1) Don’t stick beaded chains in electric sockets, twice. (Explains a lot, doesn’t it!)
2) Don’t drink and dial or email.
3) Don’t pet the cat and rub your eyes. Why? Why can’t I learn this simple lesson? How many times of red, swollen eyes does it take?
4) And the lesson from yesterday: Don’t blog at 1, 2, or 3 am.

I apologize.

But here it is 4 am and for some reason I’m wide-awake. So, I’m going to violate that last rule again.

One of my favorite quotes is this one by Zig Ziglar, “The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for.”

It’s true. We notice what we focus on. My husband and I aren’t in the habit of saying a prayer or reciting any sort of words about gratitude before eating dinner every night, but it’s a tradition I would love to institute. It’s such a great practice to consider every day all the blessings we have, particularly before all that global dimming and global warming eliminates the food supply. If only we could capture in a bottle the feeling of well-being and overwhelming gratitude we feel on some days and mist it on ourselves in times of need, say when the router breaks, or hormones poison us.

Here’s a short list of the things I am giving thanks for today, in no particular order:
~ My amazing husband who I love so much it’s overwhelming on days when I’m not hormonally poisoned (and he has remembered to take his Excedrin).
~ My mom, who I love so much when she’s not tormenting me. She arrived in Charlotte at noon yesterday and I’m so glad she’s here.
~ My loving family, particularly my favorite cousin Nikki and my aunts.
~ The long list of technology that makes my life easier, and sometimes just more entertaining, including first and foremost, wireless Internet (I make chocolate chip cookie batter sacrifices in your honor, oh honorable Internet) and Itunes. (Really if I had the power, I wouldn’t buy the world a Coke, I would bring them those two things.)
~ DVR. What a beautiful, wonderful thing DVR is. (Okay, those three things.)
~ Staying in touch with old friends, and making new ones through the Internet.
~ MASN in Charlotte. I love you MASN!! I love you!! I really love you!!
~ Vacations that create beautiful memories for as long as my mind lasts. Particularly, going to Cooperstown this year and my 40th birthday. I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet.
~ Cameras to capture memories.
~ Clean water and abundant food. A climate-controlled home. Ice and ice makers. Appliances that allow me to accomplish certain tasks easily.
~ Life in a country that is peaceful, even if sadly, we’re exaggeratedly polarized because we participate in the rhetoric that only benefits and makes powerful a handful of people.
~ An abundance of love from both the human and one specific member of the animal kingdom.
~ Rain, which finally came to Charlotte an hour ago.
~ Beautiful parks and hiking destinations, and all those natural places that make me feel spiritual.
~ Pictures from outer space which make me feel small, and remind me that my problems are insignificant, and in the cosmic sense, none of the stuff I worry about really makes any difference.
~ Charity and selfless people who make the world a little bit better.
~ Sleep, when it comes.
~ Kindness, love, forgiveness, and empathy, which are as much a part of our human nature as any of our less attractive characteristics, and make life worth living.
~ Chocolate chip cookie batter and shortbread cookies.
~ That nearly every day, apart from the hormone poisoned days, I feel like my life is better than the day before.
~ Luck and good fortune, because no matter how hard I’ve worked, everything I have, I have only because circumstances arranged themselves to allow me to have it, whether it be genetic traits, good parenting, good influences, or being in the right place at the right time, including being born in the one of the easiest places in the world to live. And also, the forces that have kept me from harm, natural or human delivered.

I guess that’s enough for a short list.

Here are some more quotes to celebrate today:
“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” ~G.B. Stern
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~Epictetus
“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” ~Gerald Good

I hope you make your own list and also feel overwhelmed with gratitude for more blessings than you can count. May your day, and your life, be filled with love.

Enchanting Sunshine reserves the right to retract this post in part or in its entirety and issue invectives and bitter vitriol to any deity, if the wireless Internet goes down again, after baseball season starts again, or should MASN cause me great injury by taking away their service.

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