40 Days of Gratefulness - Day 37

The Seder Table

Hmm, today was a good day. Plain and simple. I started the day off participating in a Seder with my church family (Day 35). If you didn't know, a Seder is a Jewish feast that kicks off Passover. I know, we're not Jewish but it was fun. It's always neat learning about other customs and traditions. We read scripture, drank wine, had traditional Jewish foods and did I say drink wine. There were several courses, each food item symbolically representing some aspect of their Exodus out of Egypt. Afterwards, we chatted casually about the rest of our day, Good Friday service and laughed wondering how folks were going to make it through the entire day after having several cups of wine. It was already clear some folks were going to have a good day already and it was only 9:00 AM. Here's a picture of my roomie (Day 23) enjoying a lamb bone at the Seder. She's so classy, look at that pinky finger extended. LOL

It was already clear ... folks were
going to have a good day.

Next, off to work. Nothing spectacular except that traffic was light. The sun was up and I opened the sunroof, turned on the heat and enjoyed the ride. A good friend called just as I was parking, she had shared a previous day's post on her face book wall and was excited at all the comments she had received. She even told me that she was going to email the post to pastor. LOL She also mentioned that she had used this here blog as a devotional for a day or two.  I beamed.

Yup, up the stairs and into a meeting. I must have been in a good mood because folks asked me where I had been. I mentioned the Seder and the meeting was magically derailed while folks shared their experiences with participating in a Seder. Who knew? There wasn't one Jewish person in the room. That made me laugh.

The day was pretty busy. I spent the day catching up on emails, trying to meet deadlines as I'm out of the office on Good Friday. A co-worker and I shared stories about our ailing parents, making hard decisions and recognizing that the only thing to do about it, is pray. Even though our conversation was heavy, we weren't left hopeless and defeated. It didn't 'bring us down,' it was just nice sharing this experience with another person who knew where we were.

After work on the ride home, I had a chance to connect with my Roomdog (Day 2). Now, we talk everyday all day but I had a chance to share with her somethings I was experiencing. She didn't offer any extraordinary advice or solutions, she just listened. And to me, it felt like she had just entered my space and held my hand. Whew, this day was turning out to be pretty good.

Once I got in from work, I hit the door and there's my roomie telling me funny stories about her day. We only chatted for 10 minutes or so but that joker is crazy so we had a good laugh. Next, off to boot camp (Day 5). As usual, boot camp was hard but phenomenal. Boot camp is a stress reliever, an ego boost and a sleeping pill all rolled into one. The energy was great, our instructor, Tiffany of BNFIT showed off her new signs that me and my roomie made. It was great and we toasted afterwards with smoothies.

Now, you'll notice that nothing magical and incredible happened throughout my entire day, right? Yeah? Well, why did it feel like the entire day was magical. The clouds looked different, it felt as if spring was in the air despite it being cold out. Work was busy, I didn't have much time to sit still or lay on that sectional. I didn't even eat any dinner. I came in, straightened up my room and cleaned the bathroom.

I found myself humming some Kirk Franklin song, Chains in my head. My roomie laughed that I had the energy to clean. And after I showered and sat down to share with you, I received this message on face book, from one of my church family members.

What was this gratefulness AKA 'journey to joy' about? Just changing my perspective, fine-tuning my grateful barometer, being still ... that an ordinary, mundane day when I absolutely had no time would turn into something magical, incredible and fun. By simply 're-directing' my focus, I could choose gratefulness, I could choose joy, I could decide that my day was a winner. That this 'sharpening my view' could touch others, inspire them, bless them and lead them to see things more gratefully as well. Whew. In the infamous words of Ice Cube, Today, was a good day!

So on this Day 37 of 40 days of gratefulness, I'm grateful for good days. #beblessed #40daysofgratefulness