Today Is A Gift

What is a perfect gift?  The unexpected? Something you have always wanted? Time? Sleep?  I posted on my Facebook today that, "Today is a gift. A perfect and wonderful gift."

I woke to  sunshine beaming in the window. I was certain it was noon. I checked in on the boys still sleeping. Did everyone sleep until noon today? It was around 6am. Wait!!!  I wanted to sleep until noon. Instead I ended up doing the dishes. Unloading a dishwasher, filling it with last night's dishes and hand-washing all the bigger dishes. I sipped on coffee. I looked at what I need to be getting done today and just smiled. Ahhhh what a gift. Today is a gift. A perfect and wonderful gift.

As I cleaned up the dishes I looked out across the apple orchard at all the green. Sprinkled with colors of flowers here and there. The sky blue. I thought that who ever is on dish duty today will get a surprise. A gift to them. The coffee was already made. I poured a cup. A gift to me. The sun beaming down from the heavens. Another gift for me. I stepped outside for a moment in my jammies breathing in the crisp Spring air. Oh the gift of life and the air in my lungs felt like another gift.  Thinking of what I would do today. A gift to have an unplanned day to make plans.

I make lists for the week. Thinks I hope to get done this week. Very few items have day/time limits because I can put next week on this week and be ahead of myself. I found my way back to my desk after dishes, and coffee. And I sat thanking God for today. Today is an unexpected gift. A day off from work. No, really a day off.  Most of my days off are planned vacations, appointments, and errands which involved planning, organization, and then being the leader of my family and seeing that everyone is in the car, and off we go into whatever we have planned. Something I have wanted for almost a year is just one day. A day to sleep in until noon, drink coffee, and stay in my jammies. I had five of those days last January. But it does not count when you have the flu. I have wanted time. Time that is wide open with nothing scheduled. I wanted to sleep in. All would be a gift.

Today is that gift. The unexpected day off. A gift from my boss after a long week last week. Recognizing that I gave my all and yesterday after only two hours of work she instructed me to go home, and take today off, too. She said I had gone above and beyond the call of duty. So the unexpected started yesterday and the boys and I took time together doing things like shopping together, hanging out at a park. That unexpected gift has spilled into today. I was up at 6am ready for the unexpected gift to be opened all day long. I guess in my thoughts I thought sleeping in until noon would be fun and drinking coffee all day, but that is not really me. I love to be moving and doing. It's how I am wired. Today I am moving and grooving here on the farm.


I am thankful for good health, truly a gift. To take walks in the country, work in the garden, and even working in the barn today. What is your idea of a gift?  Whatever it is, look for it in your day today. It's waiting for you.

Never Apologize For Where You Were

Never, as in never ever apologize for where you were. Never apologize for how you feel.  Never apologize for what you felt in that moment, or in many moments while you were there. Never forget what you learned, laughed over, cried over and felt like you could die over. For that time it was all very good. At times a struggle and hard and you were there for that time because you were suppose to be.

Have you ever stood at the river's edge?  Looking across to the other side you see something you want to get a closer look at?  You hop in a canoe and start paddling. If you have ever tried to navigate a canoe in a river, you know it's is no easy task. I think back to my Young Life days at Malibu located in the Gervais Inlet in Canada.  Those could be some very rough canoe times. You have moments of arm muscle burning, and you work  hard. You also are smiling because really there is a bit of an adrenaline rush while working so hard to get to the other side. Then you get to a calm spot and you sit and take in all that beauty, fresh air, breathtaking, heart stopping feelings of that moment or season.

Start paddling again and you are there. Standing on the opposite side of where you once were. And now looking back to where you were. It all looks so different. Very different than what you thought. You turn your head a bit, squinting from the sun because what you thought was not really how you see it now.

Life is exactly like this. Standing on the other side of where you were. And because we do learn, and grow we do see things differently. Have you ever questioned yourself? Wondering about this decision or that one. Is this the right one? Or is that the right one?  When you get to the other side and look back, there is this deep sinking feeling of things should have been different. Maybe you feel a little embarrassed. Perhaps when the topic comes up you start apologizing.

Yes, many can say that they wished they had made a different decision or taken a different path.  But here you are. And today you are who you are for every good and bad decision you have ever made. And you are exactly who you are suppose to be.

Never, as in never ever apologize for where you were. Never apologize for how you feel.  Never apologize for what you felt in that moment, or in many moments while you were there. Never forget what you learned, laughed over, cried over and felt like you could die over. For that time it was all very good. At times a struggle and hard and you were there for that time because you were suppose to be.