This has been an amazing weekend. I love it when something is good for no particular reason. This weekend, today, has been like that. Who’d have thunk it? And now it’s early–7 p.m. here in the greater DC Metro area–and I am sitting on the sofa in the living room watching the birds at the feeder and writing this blog. This is all very good, especially because I would have predicted the opposite at the beginning of the weekend. After being up extremely late Thursday evening and working an almost regular day on Friday, I figured I’d come home and collapse from exhaustion and do very little over the course of the weekend, and actually would spend most of it fighting the blues.
Not so, and I am grateful. A lot of favorable conditions existed for me to have an awesome weekend. At large part of it involved my own inner desire to have this be a good weekend. When I awoke this morning I wrote in my journal that I could feel a tinge of the blues coming on and spent my writing time opening up about what I was feeling. I am learning to acknowledge and embrace the feelings that come up rather than suppress or run away from them. They don’t go away, so what’s the point of pretending they’re not real and present? So rather than sit and stew in it, I wrote it out. Then I got up, took a cool shower and got on with my day. By the time I was up and out with the dog I had already turned the corner in my mood; in fact, it had turned almost as soon as I put down my journal and got up. So often for me these days, expressing the intention and the desire to chase the blues away is all I need to do to dispel them in reality. While it isn’t always that easy, increasingly it is easier.
The other key to my awesome weekend? Family. Plain and simple, I love being around my family. From dinner with my sister Ruth and her family yesterday, spending time with my sister Sandy and her husband Al this afternoon, and wrapping up by watching Ruth’s son play soccer this afternoon, I had a healthy dose of family and sunshine. The weather was beautiful and perfect for the soccer match. Justin played well and Ruth and I spent a pleasant afternoon cheering and clapping and enjoying the time together. As I reflect on the doors that opened to bring me out from California across the country to be reunited with my sisters, I can’t help but be grateful. I haven’t always had the easiest time as I’ve adjusted to life out here; but deciding to live close to my sisters remains among the best decisions I’ve made in a long while. Not a week goes by but that I see one or more of them (usually on the weekends) and that generally makes my week. One of these weekends I hope to score a trifecta and see all three of them in one weekend. Now that would be a record worth aiming for.
I have a lot to be grateful for. My life in general is blessed, in spite of the occasional bumps in the road and the stretches of time when things seem hard. The bumps are getting smoother and the difficult stretches are getting shorter. Through it all I remain grateful for the “good” moments even as I accept the ones that aren’t quite so good. I am learning not to clutch too desperately to one and not to run away from the other. Or, to put it more affirmatively (as I prefer to do) I am learning to hold lightly to the good and to stand strong in the midst of the less good. I am learning, as best I can, to live in the moment and be with whatever the moment brings. I haven’t arrived by any means, but I’m definitely on my way and grateful for my journey thus far. Looking forward to an awesome week ahead.
