This has been a good day. Sometimes things don’t necessarily go as expected, but with prayer and patience and a little bit of luck they often turn out alright. I had a plan for how I wanted things to go today, but that plan was altered before I even went to bed last night. Originally, I had intended to rise early and hit the road on a “practice run” of my commute to work (which I’ll begin in earnest next Monday morning.) I was going to leave the house by 7 so I could be on campus by 8 a.m. That plan was shot when, between writing my blog, doing some more organizing and unpacking, etc. I managed to work until nearly 1 a.m. By the time I went to sleep it was probably 1:30. So I knew beforehand that getting up at 6 a.m. and hitting the road by 7 simply wasn’t going to happen. I did manage to wake around 6:30, wrote in my journal as I have every morning since around February 1, then showered and got myself ready.
I still could have left the house around 8 a.m. except that I had to get Honor situated, beginning with taking her outside to “do her business.” This is going to be an important part of the daily ritual; she has to be trained as to where to go (my preference is in the back yard versus my having to walk her around the neighborhood) and then go there. I was exceedingly cranky with her at first–we walked back and forth in the corner of the yard where I want her to go and she would not go. Then I walked around the perimeter of the yard, nothing. I continually had to bite my tongue to stifle the expletives that wanted to burst forth from me at her lack of cooperation. Eventually I turned this into a walking meditation, mindfully walking along: left, right, left right…lifting, stepping, placing… I had to do something to keep me grounded and from wanting to kill my dog. Eventually (some 45 minutes later) we finally had success. She deposited, I cleaned up, praising her wildly, before taking her back inside, feeding her and bidding her adieu around 8:45. The commute itself wasn’t too bad–it took me about 45 minutes. I got where I was going later than I expected, but it was a practice run, so that was alright.
The practice of gratitude, the acknowledgment of the things for which I am grateful, and many of the things themselves, are not pulse pounding, earth shattering, mind altering experiences. They are simple, mundane elements of every day life–the dog getting acclimated to our new living arrangements (including doing her business in a completely new and different place), locating the box that had my favorite coffee mug in it, getting the first piece of mail in my mailbox addressed to me–these are the wonderfully simple things that on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis help me appreciate my life as it’s unfolding. Don’t get me wrong, I also a deeply grateful for the out-of-the ordinary, wonderful, life-altering blessings that come my way. These things are often more dramatic and so reasonably command one’s attention much more easily. I celebrate and make note of those momentous events as well. Each thing is valuable in its own right and worthy of acknowledgment. But I am grateful for the simple things, the small snapshots of every day life that remind me that I am blessed. Some days don’t turn out at all like I planned them; often, they turn out better.
