What Do You See?

I’m watching it fitfully try to snow outside while I sit at my desk and drink a mug of aromatic peppermint tea. In the background, the dryer’s humming, and the cat’s howling from the stairs because the full standard poodle we’re dog sitting is staring at him from the bottom step. Eventually, my cat will figure out how to sneak past the poodle, probably because the poor dog can’t see anything with his unruly topknot, and the cat will make his way to my lap while I’m writing.

It is incredibly easy to complain about anything and everything in life. I could gripe about the cold weather, or the laundry, or perhaps the echo of my cat’s discontent. I could bemoan the work load sitting on my desk or the need to keep a closer eye on the poodle than I would on my own dog because the poodle has a habit of eating shoes when he’s not in the same room as a person.

Now, I confess, any one of the above complaints has come out of my mouth at one time or another.

After the last several weeks of disconnecting, of simply being, all of them seem rather hallow. They reflect a skewed perspective on my life. I’m sure you see where this is going. We see memes on Facebook all the time that encourage us to be thankful. We naturally complain, so to be thankful, I believe we need to be intentional about how we look at things, how we think about them or speak them aloud.

Instead of the cold weather, I’m enjoying the warm mug of tea and the beauty of the frost covering my windowsill.

The hum of the dryer reminds me I have enough clothes to make a full load of laundry…plus, I have a washer and dryer in which to clean those clothes.

My cat’s howl makes me smile. This might be one of the things I complain about the least. The Writing Sidekick has a huge personality and he daily tells me about it.

I have a desk, at home, where I get to work daily on my writing. If the pile of work on it reaches the ceiling, that just means I’m doing something right in the job of my dreams.

The giant poodle sitting at the bottom of the stairs is a friend’s dog. This friend takes care of the cats when my husband and I go on vacation, so I don’t think the Sidekick can yowl too loudly about the poodle being around. Plus, this is a reflection of having good friends.

In a few days, when this post goes live, it’ll be Thanksgiving for those of us in the United States. I figure this is a good day to start a habit of thankfulness as I get back to the blogging world.

If you sit back and look at life around you, what beauty, joy, and goodness do you see?

Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving,

Jennifer