Friday, June 29, 2012

life should be...

"Life should always be abundantly joyful and effortless"

I saw this on a sign outside a local chiropractor's office.
I think it is supposed to be read as encouragement.
But I keep getting stuck on the "should be" and the hyperbolic nature of the sign.
I mean, I do believe one should certainly be on the look-out for the moments in life which are abundantly joyful and/or effortless.

But if life were always those things, how would we recognize those truly spectacular moments?
 {those moments that leave us in awe of this world, the people around us, and the promise of richness to come}
How are we to make sense of the abundantly gritty, effort-full, deeply sad, or confusing moments?


Obviously, I keep getting stuck on the realities of life.
Life is:
sometimes abundantly joyful
and sometimes effortless
{but}
Much of the time, it is a lot of hard work and we have a hard time finding the joy.

So I have revised the saying in my mind to read:
Life should always be open to find abundant joy in our effort.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

a loaf of bread

last night my husband made an extra batch of dough.
to rise overnight and bake for some friends.
tonight, with the kids in their jammies, we set off to deliver a warm loaf of bread.
our oldest kept asking "why are we even doing this?"

because

it feels good to complete random acts of kindness for friends.
&
a warm, fresh loaf of delicious bread is nearly always a welcome treat.