Over the past 7 days...

I have had a cell phone dropped in the toilet by the little person who lives in my house, our home computer get a virus, watched Fox News constantly in hopes that the oil spill in the Gulf isn't going to threaten our vacation..in the Gulf, and seen the lives of the people and the landscape of our beautiful city of Nashville be transformed because of flooding. To top it off, the little person that lives with us has come down with a nasty cold that has left the last two night of sleep...well, without sleep. I'm ready for the week to be over if you can't tell. In fact, I'm ready for next week to be over as well.

In the midst of all of this, there is still beauty, joy, peace and life. The little things, like the beauty of our rhododendruns that have bloomed after the hard rains. And the peace of rocking my daughter at 2:30 in the morning to try and ease her discomfort. Like the joy in knowing that no matter where we go on vacation, what matters is that we are together. And the bigger things too, the things that are life changing, like the beauty of the people of this city in the aftermath of devastation; seeing lives connect in a way that makes you wonder if they could have any other way, and hearing the news of 2 friends who gave birth to beautiful, healthy baby girls in the midst of rain storms and flooding.

It doesn't happen often, but some days it is hard for me to see the glass half full, to be thankful for the day to day. But today...today I choose joy, I choose thankfulness.