Goodness, I have been overcome with gratitude lately.

I can’t help but be amazed at what has become of my life. From the outside looking in, I’m sure it looks quite normal, really. But to me, it is full of wonder and hope.

I think several things have to do with my perspective. First of all, I made the decision to live intentionally close to a decade ago. There have been a lot of missteps along the way, but I’ve realized that when I cultivate the life I want, it just seems beautiful.

I started with the little things that were within my control. Perhaps a schedule or a room redo. Over the years, I’ve done this a lot, and it has added up to become a life filled with things I love and enjoy.

Secondly, I made the decision a long time ago to be content with the “simple things” in life. I’m sure this will look differently for everyone. But I really try to relish that book, or coffee mug, or sunset. The day is full of tiny miracles to enjoy, and I try to do just that.

Sometimes I have moments of forgetfulness (like this blog post here), when I focus on things out of my control. On the things that aren’t so simple.

This is when discontentment seeps in. Yuck. Usually I can turn things around pretty quickly when I realize what I am doing.

There were many times in my life when I concentrated on things I didn’t like that I couldn’t change. What a waste of time! I’ve realized now that thinking on these things doesn’t affect anything but my level of misery.

So yeah, I try not to do that anymore.

Instead, I hope to be intentional with my thoughts and time.

For example, today I:

… woke up later than normal, to give myself extra rest since I’ve come down with a cold.

… slowly exercised for thirty minutes.

… kept a schedule to get dinner prepared and fixed lunch for my children.

… thought ahead and brought a book to read during violin lessons.

All of these things are simple, somewhat boring, occurances. But by being intentional with my time, I was able to utilize it well. I didn’t feel badly about waking up later than I normally would. On a day when I didn’t plan to do this, I probably would have.

So my beautiful life today consisted of a lot of normalcy. Simple, normalcy is beautiful! I hope you don’t forget that. And I hope I don’t, either.

Thanks for stopping by today, friends!