I’ve noticed that I’m really good at appreciating things approximately five minutes after I no longer have them.
The electricity works every single day, but let it go out for two hours and suddenly I’m walking around flipping light switches likethefif thattemptmight somehow turn the lights back on.
The Wi-Fi works 99% of the time, but the second it doesn’t, everyone in the house is wandering around like we’ve been transpor ted back to the 1800’s. Don’t even get me started on hot water. Nothing will make you appreciate modern plumbing quite like being the last person to shower in a house full of people.
I think we do the same thing with bigger parts of life, too.
We complain about having to go to work, until we’re worried about money. We complain about cleaning the house but forget how fortunate we are to have a home that needs cleaning. We get irritated by the laundr y piled on the couch without stopping to think about the people wearing all those clothes. We forgot how blessed we are to have clothes to wear at all.
Although, for the record, I’m still waiting to reach the level of personal growth where I feel grateful for folding fitted sheets.
We spend so much time waiting for the next thing. The next paycheck.The next weekend.The next vacation. The next season of life when things will finally slow down and we’ll have time to enjoy ourselves.
Meanwhile, life is happening right in the middle of all the ordinary stuff we keep rushing through. It’sintheloudkitchen, the messy living room, the car that needs gas and a good detail clean again, the kids asking the same question fourteen times and the spouse who somehow cannot see the thing sitting directly in front of them.
One day, some of the things that drive us craz y right now might be the exact things we’d give anything to experience again.
That doesn’t mean we have to love every second of life. S ome days are hard.
Some days are frustrating. Some days everyone in the house needs to stop talking to me for approximately seven minutes.
But maybe being grateful isn’t pretending everything is perfect.
Maybe it ’s just remembering, every once in a while, that some of the ordinary things we complain about are actually things we once hoped for.
So, this week, I’m going to try to appreciate the little things a little more. The noise. The mess. The responsibilities. The people I love. Because someday, I have a feeling I won’t miss the mess nearly as much as I’ll miss the people who made it.
Until next time, keep laughing, keep learning and keep