I Choose Happiness

-

As I sit on my front porch watching and listening to the rain, I'm reminded that this is one of my favorite things to do.  Unfortunately, I don't get to do this very often.  Life is so busy that we don't allow ourselves small pleasures such as this.  But, my house is clean, my laundry is done, and it's not time to fix dinner yet, so here I sit, relaxing to the sounds of nature. 
The fresh rain smell permeates the air, and I can imagine our garden drinking this in, it's thirst being quenched by this beautiful summertime storm. 
The wind has kicked up a couple of notches, the sky has darkened and thunder is heard in the distance.  This no doubt will be a strong storm as the cool front comes through.
As I sit here relaxing, my mind drifts back to another storm and another front porch, many, many years ago...

I was a child, not sure how old, living at home with my Mom and Dad and siblings.  I have always been fascinated by thunderstorms, so this summer evening, my Dad and I were sitting on the front porch, watching the storm, and no doubt, my Dad was listening to my incessant chatter.  For those of you who haven't known me long, I've always been a talker.  Shocker, right? 
So as we watched the storm, my Mom yells for us to come inside.  I think her exact words were "Linda, you get in this house right now!  You're going to get struck by lightning!"  I'm sure I rolled my eyes and had a smart comeback, but we did make our way inside, and I sat back in one of the unoccupied chairs.  My Mom was pretty paranoid about storms, and always unplugged everything.  Well, the chair I was sitting in had the TV cord thrown over the back of it for easy reach when the storm was over.
I think you can probably all figure out what happened next.  I sat back, lightning hit, and Linda flew out of the chair and the TV lit up.  Yup!  I got struck by lightening!  I had a burn mark on my back for years, but otherwise I'm fine.  Ok, i know what you're thinking....well this certainly explains a lot!  Yes folks, that IS what happened to me.  I honestly used to be normal!  One thing it did not do was reduce my fascination with storms!  I love to watch and listen to storms!  It makes me happy. 

So now today's storm is over, and so is dinner, and I'm back on my porch, this time listening to some great music and enjoying the after storm calm.  The sun is back out, the garden has been watered sufficiently, and I've enjoyed some reminiscing.  So now I sit here wondering why we don't spend more time doing those little things that make us happy.  Watch a storm, enjoy a quiet evening with the hubby, and put thoughts on paper/computer/phone.  All three of these things make me happy.  Tonight, I shall choose happiness!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Sycamore Tree

-
Image
The sycamore tree of my youth...oh the memories! Today at my parent's house, sitting in the shade, under the old sycamore tree, I was hit with so many memories. Memories of climbing it, memories of sitting at the picnic table in it's shade, sitting with friends and family on Sunday afternoons after church and a big meal. Jeff, my brother, and I sat under the tree today reminiscing about climbing that tree as fast as we could when the middle names came out of our Mom's mouth! He and I, along with our cousin Mike who lived with us a good part of our childhood, would ultimately get into something we shouldn't, and my Mom would start yelling, using our first AND middle names, so you knew she was serious. Our theory was, if we stayed there long enough, she would cool down. Man, was I good at climbing that tree! So as I sat there today, enjoying the breeze, and my family, I just relived all those good feelings of my youth. No worries, no adult anxiety, no stress. Oh how I w
Read more

Quiet Christmas Thoughts

-
Image
There's something special about sitting in a room with the Christmas Tree being the only light.  It's quiet, with just some very soft carols being sung by For King and Country. Christmas Eve is tomorrow. The gifts are bought and wrapped. The food for tomorrow is prepped.  The house is clean. I don't have any reason to rush onto my next chore. So I sit and look at the tree, and enjoy the music. And while listening to the music, I hear the words... I mean I really hear the words! Words I have sung, words I've heard so many times. But it hits differently tonight.  I wonder what Mary was thinking, going to Bethlehem. Was she frightened? We've heard many times that the angel said "fear not", but Mary was human. Was she worried? Was she frightened? Was she excited? All of these thoughts as today is my first born son's birthday. So I remember the feelings that come with becoming a mother. But for Mary, her son was the highly anticipated Messiah! I can't i
Read more

27 Days as a Minimalist

-
Image
My New Year's Intention was to become a minimalist. I felt it was time to let go of a lot of stuff, and just simplify my life. When people hear "minimalism", most will conjure up an image of bare walls, floors, and furniture. But minimalism is so different than what I also imagined. My minimalism may look very different from yours. It's whatever you decide it will be.  For me, it was going room to room, decluttering, deciding what to keep, what to throw out, and what to donate. It was organizing closets, cabinets, and even inventorying the pantry, fridge and freezers.  I did one room at a time. I have filled so many trash bags!  I have boxes and bags full of household items, clothes and shoes to donate.  I'm now 27 days in.  Every room except the basement has been thoroughly decluttered and organized. Even my car has been organized...all those bags I need for Aldi are corralled!😂 The other part of minimalism is cutting your spending. I have a 72 hour sheet.  If I
Read more