Wake Up and Smell the Joy

After a fitful half-night of sleep, I stumbled onto the cool wood floor, blurry and unsure of what planet I had landed on. I'm still recovering from major abdominal surgery, with drain lines snaking out of my body and a big compression garment contorting my insides. There's no real sleep happening, every which way I turn hurts, but time and work march on and I'm trying to not be a wimp. My dear husband has been an angel, listening to my whining and tucking me gently in every night. 

As I wobbled out the door to let the dog do her business, my bare feet hit the mushy, cold, wet grass. Mud squished up between my toes as I regretted not putting on my neon pink Crocs. She took her time, sniffing and wandering all over the yard for just the right spot. This dog is insecure and wants me right next to her before she eats, sleeps or eliminates. She kept looking to me, to follow her through the miserable grass until her Highness discovered the best pile of leaves to go in. My grumpy self barked at her, "Hurry up! I wanna go back to bed!" I was half-dressed, cold, and pondering my silly first-world problems when I looked up to the sky. Periwinkle blue melted over to the east, where coral pink and yellow spilled all over the tops of the trees. The light and air fairly glowed with golden dew. The birds were having a music festival, three chipmunks tittered and ran in front of me, and the dog started rolling gleefully in the moss (we don't have grass, it's apparently not possible). I decided to go ahead and take a little walk. The whole earth was welcoming the day with something akin to a symphony and I needed to get in on it.

Just a brief stroll around the corner, and my heart lifted with the simple beauty of God's creation. The leaves are just about to turn, the animals are storing up, the sky is clear as a bell and I can smell folks making breakfast. There's mud and mess and mayhem in the news. But the front page right here is a lung-ful of sweet air, my good neighbors all around living life, all my children tucked in with their spouses and babies, husband already at work, and a new day dawning. Happy day.