The Ship of My Life Sailing Through Softly Falling Snow

This quote from Maya Angelou spoke to me this morning.

The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

Today, I am blessed! Yep, life has its many stresses. My "ship" has been bouncing around in stormy waters - the normal stuff of life - sick kids, bickering kids, the van needing repairs and new tires, too much to do and not enough time to do it in, the house is always messy, work is full and has its own set of both positive and negative stresses. In the craziness of juggling way too many balls at one time - and dropping a few accidentally along the way - it is easy to pass by gratitude. To let my heart and mind fill up with worry or problem-solving or planning or....

So, taking a few good deep breaths, I create space in my heart for gratitude - to really feel it swelling and scooting the worry and problem-solving aside. To create room to wonder at the softly falling snow beginning to sprinkle itself like powdered sugar on the ground. To be grateful for its beauty and the blanket of protection it puts over plants and the water it adds to the ground. To listen with child-like ears as my girls exclaim "Mom, its snowing!" To bask in the memories for a moment of Rowan, just learning to talk, declaring snow a "big mess." To stand on the front porch for just a minute and smell the snow - it has a unique cold smell. Thank you snow for reminding me to pause in my busy day to be in wonder for a little while.

I am blessed.