1. Hearing that my neighbors are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary by recreating their first dates.
2. Seeing a brown bunny with a huge cotton tail hopping in the yard.
3. Putting maraschino cherries in my drink just because.
4. Listening to my husband on the phone as he arranged to borrow a truck to deliver compost to the backyard for a new vegetable garden.
5. Feeding the pet turtle, Stripe, that I'm babysitting for two weeks.
6. Wrapping myself in a huge green blanket as I write this because my basement office is chilly.
7. Knowing that a friend with seven children received a day of housecleaning as a Mother's Day gift from her husband.
It's May 7th. Another ordinary day in my neighborhood. Seven different moments made me happy today, and it's not even lunch time yet. As I wrote this list just now, I asked myself what made each moment so full of flair for me.
They each triggered a special memory: nervous and romantic first dates with my husband, chasing rabbits in a field when I was eight, ordering Shirley Temples with my father at fancy restaurants, growing the hugest tomatoes as a kindergartner (I still can see them in my mind), finding turtles on the banks of our backyard creek as teenager (I was too old for this, and yet I knew some things you don't outgrow), wrapping my friend in this green blanket as she slept on my couch one weekend nearly a decade ago, and remembering a best friend before she was married, before her life became the day-in and day-out of raising kids, and knowing she could rest today as someone else scrubbed her toilets.
The brain is a file cabinet of memories we turn into beautiful narratives. We thread the present moment into this quilt of memories and find its place in relation to all we've been through. What I love about living with flair is that it embeds my thoughts in the now while allowing deep reflection into past joys.
It's not a future thing. It's never a fantasy about what should or will be. Living with flair is fully experiencing the day, connecting it to what we love and loved, and staying in that place of joy. No need to imagine a different life. No need to ask what's missing. It's all right here.
This is a beautiful post. And no offense is taken at your comments on my post. Perhaps it is something we could discuss further if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, it looks like you have a treasure full of wisdom to share with readers.
Blessings to you!
In Christ,
Marlena