A Wonderful Life

 

Awhile back, I was casually reading a good friend’s blog and found out that she’d never seen the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Positively obscene,” I told her. Everyone knows that you can’t go to heaven if you haven’t seen “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Slight exaggeration, maybe, but it still felt wrong to know anyone on earth who hadn’t seen it.

So even though it was past Christmas and we really have been making every effort to put all the green and red tubs back in the garage–we kept this one movie out and invited our sweet friend over to see it for the first time in her life. It was a lovely experience to watch someone–besides me–cry in all the right places. She was even a great sport with all our commentary, which can try the patience of even the most sturdy mountain woman. In the end, of course she loved it, so I’ve come to a conclusion of sorts.

Maybe this “Christmas movie” isn’t such an exclusively Christmas movie. In fact, it felt like the perfect show for this time of year when we are all trying in our own way to be little better than we were last year.

What a great reminder to “bloom where we’re planted,” and make the most of what we’ve got–whatever it is.

Because we just never know the difference we may make in the lives of someone else, just by being ourselves.

New Year’s Goal #6– I will pay attention to the tiny feet that may be stepping in my footprints.

 

10 things that make me happy…

1. The snow coming down as I type. Our state always needs more water. So it’s a big deal to get all this new stuff. I just want to be snowed in at least once in my life.

2. Pink lights on a canopy bed. It’s very exotic and makes me feel particularly fancy somehow. Even if I’m just wearing a sweatshirt and jeans.

3. A baby girl who loves her monkey.

4. A baby boy who loves to laugh.

5. A baby “chomp” who could show up any day now. Maybe we’ll wake up one of these mornings and Lyndi will have a sweet, warm bundle all cuddled up with her. I suppose, in real life we’ll know when she decides that she’s truly coming. But since Lyndi is having a home birth–it could be a surprise for us–any time now.

6. A well attended puzzle on a wintery day.

7. Dear friends in a beautiful place.

8. A beautiful place

9. A pristine kitty

10. A letter from a happy boy in a very cold, faraway land.

*******

Be sure to check out the “Grateful List” tab. This will be our never-ending happiness list. Reply to this post and let us know what makes you happy. We’ll just keep racking them up until we get…oh, a million or so. :]  You can send as many, as often as you’d like.

Can’t get too much of this good thing!

How many is a million, anyway?

New Year’s Goals

According to legend, a young man while roaming the world came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher. After a four-day journey he presented the water to the old man who took a deep drink, smiled warmly and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart.

Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the old leather container. The student challenged his teacher: “Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?”

The teacher replied, “You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of living-kindness and nothing could be sweeter.”

Self-motivation without gratitude is impossible. Our energy is “sapped” when our entire focus is on what’s wrong instead of what is right with our lives. One of our greatest challenges is to live and love in spite of pain and disappointment…to find gratitude in the midst of it all.

Reflect for a moment on this beautiful quote from Melody Beattie:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

New Year’s Goal #1  Gratitude.

I will keep a gratitude journal and each day record at least one blessing, one joy or one example of “the Lord’s hand in my life.”

President Eyring’s talk about gratitude

100 Things To Be Happy About

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These particular children

Lyndi's computer 008

These perfect grandbabies

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Missionary boy phone calls on Christmas day

Fleece slippers    cheetoes

A bag of Cheetoes–baked not fried

Painted toenails

The smell of real Christmas trees

blue-birds

A well stocked bird feeder

Picking raspberries

Real Hot Chocolate with real whipped cream

Wearing pigtails

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Striped socks

Bright pink mittens

A reading lamp

scotland

Men with Scottish accents

Baby kittens

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Stone cottages

Cherries from a roadside stand

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A backyard full of autumn leaves

Thundery rainstorms

Cheerios

Snowed in with everyone home

gas-prices

Gas prices right this second

The power of prayer

Thatched roofs

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“Baby First Step”

Indian corn

Music boxes where you can see the insides

Porch swings

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A sister

Baby kisses

Pecan logs without cherries

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Pumpernickel bread with Swiss cheese

The picture book, “The Relatives Came.”

Old photos of total strangers

Caramel apples

“Seabiscuit”

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Metal crochet hooks with taped handles

Christmas lights in very tall trees

Canopy beds with curtains

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PeeWee baby dolls

Football games

Very old houses with very old trees

Jack in the Box tacos

Border’s gift cards

sunshine

Surfer hair

Crocheted dust ruffles

Old buttons

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“Little Lost Baby”

 

Lousia May Alcott books

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Beloved crazy people with New Year’s fireworks

Being read to

Flute music

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Beany my love

Vlasic Kosher Dill Spears

Farm houses

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A Brother

Embroidery scissors

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Rainbow Brite

The “Out of Africa” soundtrack

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Summerfest

Peter Brinholt music

Cable tights

Light purple

Cinnamon pinecones

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Mourning doves

Creamers

Rootbeer floats in grama’s backyard

Christmas cards with photos inside

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Letters with foreign stamps

Wind chimes

Gift baskets with really cool stuff

Jane Austen movies

Wool Felt

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My dad in a kilt

Pink malt balls

Babies born gently

Snapset pools

Maxfield Parrish paintings

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Baby fingers and toes

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Cute boys with big feet

Freeze dried ice cream

Church steeples

Old friends that come back

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Icicles

Waterfalls

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Free range giraffes

Button up sweaters

“Goose Girl”

Twelfth Night

christmas-eve

Christmas Eve

Stuffing

Kisses on the hand

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Pastry Blenders

Little girls in dresses and tights

Pink and purple petunias

Ballet Slippers

Mission

My sweet Mom

My cute daddy

Happy Thanksgiving!!

ThanksgivingWe here at Gracious Rain hope you have the happiest of Thanksgivings and that you eat so much turkey and cranberry sauce and potatoes and pie that you sleep for a week…well, no…then you’d miss all the cool sales tomorrow and that would be would be terribly counter-productive. Maybe, use moderation…

oh, forget it.

So, ok…go eat stuffing.

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My cute little son in Lithuania breaking dry bread for stuffing–8 hours ago–

because HE knows that some traditions must go on, even in a far away land.

Have a wonderful holiday!