Choose to See the Good!

This is a beautiful book!!  "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. I feel like I'm reading through her thoughts the thoughts/growth/questions I've had over the past 10 years ~ learning how to live with gratitude, how to see everything as a blessing, how to find joy in the present moment, in the life you have right now and to stop waiting for tomorrow, stop waiting for that elusive Golden Ticket to finally surprise you, to stop saying "I'll be happy when..." - CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY TODAY!

The good things and the bad, God is in it all, but can we focus on the good? It seems that is a message that the prophet and apostles today are sharing over and over again - Finding Joy in the Journey, In Search of Treasure, Happiness Your Heritage, Forget Not to be Happy Now, Come What May and Love it... I'm really looking forward to General Conference to hear more of their counsel, every conference speaks to and feeds my soul.

And I just had a lightbulb come on in my head - cause seriously people, we are living in the most amazing and cushy-est society every, conveniences, supermarkets, cars - this isn't Valley Forge or Martin's Cove.  Why is it that in a day when there is so much ease and there are so many miracles and joys to partake of ~ why is it that in a day like this we enjoy that happiness is the thing that seems most elusive to so many people?  Happiness is what we all strive and search for, is it the thing that we are most deprived of?  If so, why?  and how sad is that?!!  I think that proves Ann's theory, that it's not in what lay before us in our lives, it's in our eyes and ears and what we have learned and taught ourselves to see and hear.  We seem pretty capable of seeing bad and being unhappy with all the good that surrounds us, the clincher is learning to see goodness and happiness in the plain, normal, boring, ugly, & sad.

In the book One Thousand Gifts, chapter 6 which I just finished she talks about chasing the moon, and it's the same way I feel about fall and the mountains, the same way I felt as I saw the Buck Moon set, the same way I felt this past Friday as we drove and saw the waxing moon orange from smoky sky grow larger as it inch closer to the horizon.  (I'm trying to wax poetic like Ann) - Can I feel the same sighs of wonder in my day to day life that I feel when I see the moon and the mountains, have my heart filled with energy and wonder by walking around the halls at home like I am when walking by autumn trees?  As Ann says perfectly on page 120 after watching the Harvest Moon rise and then being called back to her home, children, and dinner dishes:

I am going back.  I look up, try to find her again.  I'm reluctant to untether from the moon.  The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy, before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet?  How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral?  Could I go back to my life and pray with eyes wide open?

(You really should go get this book right now.)  Ok, I'm done waxing philosophical (had to spell check that word).  I'm going to go read some more.  :)