Saturday Thoughts

It has been a quiet Saturday: 

• Baked a Dutch baby for breakfast, which warmed the kitchen and made it smell nice.
• Put in a few loads of wash.
• Sorted through old paper work--those bits and pieces that come in the mail and seem important at the time, but hang around uselessly for months.
• Walked in the cold, windy woods.
• Came home and made hot tea. 
• While we were out a package arrived! It was the book I ordered: Connecting With Young Children: Educating the Will. I read the first chapter this afternoon, good stuff.
•  Knit a bit. (See that blue wool in my knitting basket? It is becoming a hat and mittens.)

This morning I woke up thinking about how blessed I am:  I have always been close to my parents and brothers. I grew up in a neighborhood that was a true community; the relationships formed there have lasted a lifetime. I grew up in a church that nurtured my spirit and formed my faith. I am married twenty-four years to a man who loves me more than his own life. I have five children who amaze and delight me. Truly, love and warmth have surrounded me my entire life  I am whole. (Which doesn't mean that I am without problems or sorrows--as I said, I am whole).

When I was a young woman an older lady said to me, "Happiness is a choice."  I was shocked by her words and thought that she couldn't be right, for who would choose to be unhappy?  Now that I have reached her age, I have come to appreciate her words as some of the wisest I have ever heard. Life will always be hard; I will always have problems; there will be countless sorrows. But, if I want to, I can be happy anyway. It's up to me. This is the power of the human will.

Right now Emmeline is quietly playing Sunday Morning on the piano. It is such a soft, lovely song. Luke is happily playing a game with Zach. Amy is reading, and Seth is working on an assignment for one of his college classes. I am going to settle in on the sofa with my knitting, my pug, and my thoughts. In a little while the whole family will gather for a movie--not sure which one we'll watch, but I'm casting my vote for The Wizard of Oz.