Appreciating

In this world that spins so fast with people rushing from one appointment to another and never taking the time to reflect or think, with children who have every minute of their days filled with organized activities, with families not taking the time to sit down and eat meals together, and with friends not taking the time to stop and tell each other how much they love and need one another, I am stopping now to share what I am appreciating today.  For the last two years, I have been trying to tell at least one person a day how I appreciate them and trying to find at least one thing or action that is so beautiful that it stops me in my tracks.  What follows are just some of the things I am seeing today.
Today I cherish:

• The breath of my children on my skin when they hold me close and tell me that they love me.
• Hearing the word, "Momma," when it's said sleepily and holds all of the moments shared between a child and a mother, especially when the child is old enough to know that Mother is fallible.
• Knowing that my mother is still a protective lioness of all of her children.
• The look that passes between lovers in a crowded room and holds the reasons they love each other and the promise of their shared future and dreams.
• Being able to call or see my life friends after not having spoken to them in a long while and knowing them so well that we pick up right where we left off because time passing and distance never dulls true friendship.
• Having known all four of my grandparents and learned life lessons from them.
• Seeing the promise of rain on the Delta horizon and anticipating smelling the rain that will send up puffs of  the powder dust in the turn rows with each fat drop.
• Being able to write and have another soul take in my words, experience them, and perhaps remember them.
• Having friends to whom I can say, "Thank you so much for the invitation, but tonight I just feel like PJs and a movie at home," and they are not offended.
• Silly jokes that you know the punch line to, but you play along because the sound of the voice telling the joke is so sweet.

Today I'm listening to:

• "Happy" by Mazzy Star (Happy)
• "Bizarre Love Triangle" by Frente! (Love this because it brings back memories of listening to New Order do it way back when: Bizarre Love Triangle)
• "Crazy for You" by Adele (Crazy For You)
• "How Soon is Now" by the Smiths How Soon Is Now?