The Little Ordinary Things - Beauty and Goodness

Hi friends,

Many years ago my  Mother in law once said to me, 

"Lea, you can always choose to be happy."

No matter what kind of day you've had or 

what has happened, you can choose to be happy." 

She spoke life to me.

Years later; visiting with a friend, the friend  said

 "Don't focus on what you don't have Lea,

focus on what you do have."  

She too spoke life to me.  

I think both those things  stem from a grateful heart.  

Choosing to find the good and focus on 

blessings, and the joys we have that truly 

grow a life.  

My random gratitudes that I share here 

are those  sweet little things in this simple life.  

Like heart rocks and 

that I found another just this morning when Myguy 

pulled in mid morning to grab an envelope he needed.

He texted me  to say he was almost home for a second and I ran out to 

greet him and steal a good kiss ... we found his envelope and 

when he drove away I looked down and there

was a heart rock in the gravel.  

Sweet joys... in ordinary life.  

For these; I'm so grateful. 

 I wish I would have learned to just choose joy sooner in life.   

Those younger years when life was hectic raising little boys.  

Money was stretched so thin and tight and yet always God provided.

His math... his ways... it  goes beyond imagination. 

He can multiply beyond our understanding  and 

somehow always we made it like loaves and fishes.

If only I could go back and tell the younger me... "Hey girl,

everything is gonna be alright.  

Focus on all the beautiful blessings you have in front of you." 

Now; here I am at the age of 54 or 55ish..

and I can look back and see it all.  

 Now I  realize the  beauty and goodness. 

It's all here... and it was always here all along.

You just have to see it.    

 Like pickin Coreopsis ... and  

sharing it here in bottles ...

 And for sharing it with  all of you.  

One simple soul sharing flowers from a shabby olde shed.  

It makes me happy...

these ordinary, beautiful little things. 

Like: sippin through a straw in a mason jar from 

the 1800's.  

Or the sweetness of a bing cherry snack wrapped in a bandanna

and spittin pits while writing.

 Or sittin at the table, writing out my daily examen...

and adding watercolor for the simple joy of it.  

 For documenting how I'm discovering even sacred in 

all this ordinary too.  And ...

 And for this.... 

my Emily.  

She is my confidant.. and trusted friend.  

I write all my heart in her pages. 

Such a small and ordinary thing that is anything

but because she holds soul thoughts and prayers to 

God Almighty.   

 Sweet, simple joys... 

sweet friendly flowers picked and 

poured out... 

 From this path ... 

right into yours.  

 Joys of rusty crusty goodness. 

Ordinary extraordinair ..

 little catholic medals 

- finding happiness in all of it.  

For new resources like Word on fire, the Jesuits prayer app, and 

Formed.  The latter... I don't even know how I came upon it...

it's as if it found me.  

Sweet joys.  

So much gratitude.  

For a peeled cucumber 

and a salt shaker. 

Ordinary? Yes... scrumptious?.. yesssssssssssS!!! 

For a friend who shared her question in the Beatitudes and 

how she loves Jesus and wants to know Him more.  

For Myguy thanking  God for me when we bow our heads at the table.  

The lifting uP of that is hard to put into human words.  

  For  beauty in the natural,  over ripe, dried out and 

the discovering seed left inside.  

Beauty goodness and truths... 

I'm finding right here.  

Thank you God for all these things and so much more...

thank you for my every thing.  

Until we meet again,

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