Gifts and Gratitude

It's been an ugly, ugly weekend. So ugly, it was hard to see anything BUT the ugly; to think of anything BUT the depressing.

Sometimes a change in perspective is a painful thing to do...it can be hard work. Sometimes digging yourself out of despair is too exhausting and curling yourself away from it all seems the only (easy) way out. ALWAYS, that work is worth it though.



This is me, only on the second week of the 1,000 gifts, Gratitude Monday, floundering and flailing, forcing myself to find the beautiful in the ugly, the gifts in the given. The harder I work at finding it, the more that I see.

12 :: Ugly: Empty gas gauge-as bone dry as the "gas money envelope" The beautiful: A husband who, uncharacteristically, takes the long way home from church.

13 :: Ugly: the pit in my stomach, the empty stare of my eyes, and the quiet of my usually bubbly mouth. Beautiful: the teasing and playfulness of husband causing eruptions of laughter, when I needed it most



14 :: Ugly: A bed on the side of the road, stained up, splattered, dusty and old-but free for the taking. Beautiful: a three year old Panda who feels like a very big boy

15 :: Two nights (in a row) of bed-wetting (from two different children) Beautiful: Windblown sheets on a sunny day



16 :: Ugly: money always being spoken for, never an opportunity to splurge Beautiful: credit card paid off last month, our first month of no credit card payments. Freedom! THAT'S a beautiful thing!



17: Ugly: old, dirty dead-bug filled jars in crusty cardboard Beautiful: very necessary canning jars on the cheap, that will be more than beautiful when filled




18: Ugly: brown splotched pea pods Beautiful : peas plucked from their shells by a set of big hands and two sets of small ones. All together, happily working side by side.

19 :: Ugly: Plastic bottles, disposable containers, garbage littering the world, laying in wait for future generations. Such a disposable, wasteful culture. Beautiful: weaving plastic bottles around metal hooks and making warmth.




20 :: Ugly: holey plants, eaten and being eaten. Beautiful: metallic colors clutching fiercely~ tickling fingertips and children



Once I begin looking for the beautiful in the ugly, the gifts in the given, I begin to see the beauty without noticing UGLY at all.

A few, just plain beautiful...gifts, unwrapped daily

21 :: a computer to figure out how cook pattypan squash (?!?!) because I have PLENTY of it.

22 :: visits with good friends under the moon and candles



23 :: a scene from my own childhood~ little, lanky girl surrounded by a sea of school supplies. Just admiring, fingering, and anticipating. and

24 :: a CVS and TARGET who are giving me more than ample school supplies for free or pennies, seeking out the ad each week has become a real highlight for me!

25 :: Books!~ Abe Lincoln had to walk many miles to borrow a single book to read, and we have oodles at our fingertips; under our own roof, the roof of our library, and the online canopy of inter-library loans. All free for the taking.