Friday, May 11, 2012

Sunshine & Volcanos

Blogging.  Hmm, yeah.  I probably should have blogged on Monday or maybe Wednesday…well, here it is now Friday.  I’ve been putting it off all week!  I have things to say and then decide that I’m not really sure what to say, then I just don’t have time or I can’t pick a topic.  Ugh!  So, this morning I decided that I am just going to start write-talking.  So, we will see together what this ends up becoming! {Smile}

Well, I currently feel very scatter-brained.  We have a lot going on – busy kids, work, volunteering, obligations and Hubby and I leave for Haiti in 8 ½ days.  My house looks like a herd of elephants ran through it, I should really go and exercise and my kids don’t have school today, so we have added random children to our brood!  My 2 youngest, Squirt and Bug, have decided to pull every cushion off of our couches, pile them, along with the entire hoard of stuffed animals and every ounce of bedding, onto the extra-large sofa. 



So, I’ve decided to sit my bum down in this enormous mess with my nice, warm mug of coffee goodness and enjoy the day.  {On a couch currently without cushions!} I’m watching my son and his buddy wander through the yard with their be be guns, listening to my littlest ones talk about kangaroos, Squinkies and imaginary friends, our sweet dog, Annie, is splayed across my feet and the beautiful sunshine is pouring through the window. 

I am beyond blessed!  I know this fact, but it becomes so easy to forget.  As we’ve been preparing to lead our team back into Port-au-Prince, I’ve had this softly bubbling, quiet volcano of emotion underlying everything that I do.  I’ve been trying really hard to ignore it, bury it, pretend that it isn’t there, but we leave in a week, so it’s probably time to just let it out….

When I first returned home from Africa, it was really hard to re-adjust to “American” life.  Just driving down a safe, paved road would bring tears to my eyes.  Road signs, stop lights, gas stations, grocery stores, coffee shops, I cried inside TARGET!  Kids riding bikes, playing on big, safe playgrounds, TOYS!  Then sometimes I would get downright angry as I overheard conversations of others complaining, whining or even just being completely, naively ungrateful for the things that they have been given.  However, as happens when time passes, I began to forget.  I began to revert to the comfortable, unaware life that I was used to living.  It’s just so easy to walk through life not seeing the bounty, the excess, the simple comforts that most of the world does not get to enjoy.  The past few weeks, my eyes have been re-opened.  As I watch my kids play with the toys that overflow out of their oversized closets, buying a month’s worth of groceries for my family, taking a walk on a paved pathway, going to dinner in a gorgeous restaurant while being waited on hand and foot, having the ability to worship in freedom and in public in a beautiful, air-conditioned building…I am reminded and humbled by those who do not have the ability, the freedom or the possibility of even grasping those things that I so willingly take for granted.  So today, whether you have been witness to the things above or not, will you please take time to simply enjoy the little things, be thankful for your bounty, say a prayer for those in need and maybe even consider what you might do to make an impact?

3 comments:

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  2. I needed this read in my funk I find myself in the midst of...oxox

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  3. Well, sometimes you're allowed to be in a funk :). But glad I can add some perspective! Love you too!

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