And Today

Long days of work when you're tired to the bone.

Another time we have to pay special attention to happiness, because it's just too easy to gripe and complain.

I baptized three little kids today, 5, 20 months, 8 months. It was chaotic. But it was also beautiful. We're worshiping outside these days, under the trees in our outdoor cathedral. People bring recreational chairs or whatever chairs they have, and relax into the beautiful day. Some people put blankets on the ground, especially those with little kids. We speak uplifting and challenging words, offer prayers for those who are in need or who are struggling, offer financial gifts and food gifts to help make service possible and to feed those who are food insecure. Last week we sent 87 quilts overseas to areas in crisis. 

I noted in my sermon today that remembering things in threes helps us to remember. Today we talked about how experiencing welcome enables us to be welcoming, how receiving a word of life enables us to share such a word with others, and how a table prepared for us and being fed enables us prepare a table for others. Receiving the good things in life empowers us to share the good things in life.

There's a simple wisdom and beauty in this. 

The day has been cloudy and cooler. While I normally crave sunlight, on a day like today when full sun can raise the temperatures another ten degrees, I'm grateful for the clouds that soften the heat. I'm grateful for the quiet the street - no one has used power tools all afternoon. I'm grateful for the chance to snooze a bit in the afternoon. Sometimes I do that on Sundays when I've spent most of my energy by midday. There's a soft breeze blowing. The windows are closed, but I can see it moving the branches of trees outside my kitchen window.

A Hundred Days of Happiness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonder. She asks big questions of the small things in life.