Lucky Me

The sun is just beginning to rise. I will go and open the doors to the different coops out back. The back porch, which is a new room I am in love with, is full of ripe tomatoes. The first jars of summer canning have sealed and adorn the small table. Salsa. The sunrise glows orange on the horizon. It is raining. It is the second day of rain after a long dry spell. I’m happy about the rain even though it makes messy mud for me to walk through. The dog is wet and stays on the back porch which has a nice floor for getting mud and water on. I’m typing this story out and I get a nice surprise from my husband. He comes home for a second cup of coffee and even though I got up too late to kiss him goodbye this morning, I get to give him a kiss now. His work is only one mile down the road. I suppose I could be putting a load of laundry in the washer and setting up my work station for canning tomatoes but I’m not, I’m typing, I’m writing. When I’ve finished my typing and posted it to my blog, then I start my day, but not until then. After I am done with writing I feel like the most challenging part of my day is behind me and it’s all downhill from here. It is a wonderful feeling which is powerfully changing me. I am one of the lucky ones. I have the peace and freedom to choose my daily routine. The garden has been blessed this year, not with everything I wanted, but with plenty of what we need to get us through the year. What we aren’t able to grow we can purchase from a local farmer or grocery store. I wake in the mornings to only the hum of the fridge or the whir of the air conditioner. The roosters, we can’t forget to mention them, but I can’t really hear them inside the house. Everyday when I wake there is plenty for me to do.

Today there is thunder and rain. The thunder is harmless. I am not threatened by it. I am not experiencing any hurricane or tornado. There is no noise of rockets nor explosions of war. My drinking water is clean and pure, straight from my well, through a series of filters which we installed in our home. My children are well and healthy, except for Debbie, but she is healed and in paradise. Chloe is waking up and getting her gears going for a new day at home school. My husband loves me in his quiet unspoken sort of way. He stays busy from sunup to sundown. Not busy, busy, but continuously moving, working, helping, fixing, building. People come and go when he is here. They bring things to him and he fixes them and they come back and he shows them what he did and they are happy. We bow our heads together at mealtimes and take turns saying the blessing. On Sunday we drive to church, a little church with a steeple. Yes, we are the lucky ones.

I heard recently that oil was spilled into the Ohio River and is ruining it. I asked someone who faithfully watches the news about it. I had to ask because I haven’t watched television for a very long time but was wondering if this oil spill had been in the news, or was I the only one aware of it. It seems pretty big deal to me. At first my friend drew a blank. Then I mentioned that it didn’t happen today and she said that it was yesterday’s news. The way she said that alarmed me. It’s not important because it was yesterday. But it is our Ohio River. Seems to me that it is just as important today as the day they ruined it. But today there is new news. And I remember when I used to watch the news that it was one thing after another. A tragedy in one person’s life, a death, perhaps a murder, reported on and then moving right on to the next news. Maybe news about where a celebrity had their wedding or something silly like that. War in one country, complaining in another. At any point in every day, someone is hurting and children are crying from neglect and abuse, some are hungry and someone is killing someone and countries are at war and corporations are lying to get around the laws and people are unaware that what they are eating is poison and children are afraid in the schools and other people are planning disasters. Some places are experiencing fires and some floods. Some places there are tidal waves, tsunami’s and earthquakes. Really important things happening to real people all over the world. Christians are being persecuted. Even the environment is being a bit more destroyed each day. As I go into this day I am aware that there is suffering all around us in the world and that I am blessed and I am thankful. I am allowed to sing, and so I will. Not that it’s much to listen to, but with all that is going on, someone needs to sing, someone needs to dance. Someone needs to smile and say kind words. Someone should, and that someone is ever so lucky me. To be happy and thankful and kind and share the same. Is that what my job is? I think so. There must be place in this world for good. It isn’t bad everywhere. I’m not ignoring what is happening everywhere, I’m praying for the hurt and the suffering, the cancer patients and the hopeless. I have not been given the job of bearing the weight of the world, that’s Jesus job. I’ve been blessed to bring a ray of sunshine, a word of thankfulness, a flicker of hope, an encouraging word. I am one of the lucky ones.

Elizabeth Williams, daily writing exercise, 1,007 words.