Sunday Confessions: There IS Beauty All Around (Day 7)

We all walked out of the house looking like this. . . Totally ready for a family photos shoot and didn't’ even plan it!

 

Oh Heavens to Betsy, what a week.

Here’s a truthful response to this week:

1) Covid is, in fact, real.

2) Parents are precious and dear and we are grateful for each and every moment we have with them—however many that may be.

3) Choose your HARD: Being outside heals the soul and gives you perspective you wouldn’t get any other way.  Getting up to see the first light of day outline the mountains and watching the world wake up—worth the 45 minutes of lost sleep by a gazillion.  CHOOSE to do a hard thing.

4) I am, truth to tell, terrified of mountain biking but I do it because we should all do something we are afraid of as often as we can stand (for me—once a month).

5) There is waaaaaaaayyyy more kindness in the world around us than hate or anger or prejudice.  

6) People want to love you and help you and encourage you in your endeavors.  I thought I knew that, but I had never experienced it.  I have now and I feel a deep sense of humility and reverence by such support.

7) We are all going to be ok.

8) AND it’s ok to feel like it won’t be ok now and then.  Let yourself feel all your feels. Cry, yell, curse, and scream your heart out.  We’ve all been there, we will probably be there again.  Let your human show and you will still be loved, admired, supported and forgiven.

9) God is real.  I know, maybe you call Him her or It or the Universe or Karma or human kindness—doesn’t matter because it’s all real.  There is a power and source for all of us to go to for guidance, healing, and reprieve.  Each time I do, there is a calmness that far surpasses anything I’d ever be able to achieve on my own.  I felt it last night as Finnegan sobbed himself to sleep and all of us sat around contemplating the repercussions of this news.  Like a warm blanket, literally, I felt peace distill all around me and my home and my family.  I felt stillness where before there was frantic-ness.  I felt energized and hopeful were before there was malaise and numbness.  You may call it something else, I call it God and I am endlessly grateful for it.

10) We are not alone.  Ever.  I am re-inspired to make sure everyone around me knows that.  Thank each and every one of the countless yous who reminded me of this fact this week.  I needed it VERY badly and you showed up brilliantly.

Wheph.

That’s a lot of truthfulness.  But it’s been a week.  Like really really really been a week.  

Today, another week starts.

I feel like I should feel nervous or something.  Just last week I was writing away at how tired I was about covid and how I needed to change my attitude and BOOM, attitude ADJUSTED (bit time!).  But I’m strangely not nervous.  I feel all sorts of feelings, not all of them positive (in truth, most aren’t), but I feel like whatever comes, it’s life. Turns out we can’t control what happens to us, we can only control how we respond. 

(Also, I’m hoping for a evening out of the Universe—a hard week followed by . . . A less hard one? Right?  RIGHT?!)

Until then . . .

Here’s a few photos of our Pizza Feast we made tonight (if you want the recipe, message me, I’ll send it).  It was utterly delicious . . .but then again everything is delicious after fasting (we fast the first Sunday of every month—worst best thing we do).  Food . . .is precious.

Fixings for breakfast pizza (chicken sausage, pan fried potatoes, caramelized onions)

Ok, sometimes it happens and tonight it did—perfect dough

So perfect

Finish product—yes, it does look beautiful (usually I can’t roll out a circle to save my life, but the gods of cooking smiled down on me and I made ˆfive perfectly circular pizzas!)

The beauty all around . . . The view from our neighborhood.

True.  They are not social distancing.  Too late.

And if you’ve read all the way to this point . .. you’re in for the best and most beautiful part of my day (it’s the Easter Egg I’ve hidden at the end of this post).  Finnegan, the last one to complain ever, was quiet all yesterday as the trick or treaters came to the door.  When the lights were turned off and the night done, he quietly said, “I missed the candy.”  We didn’t pay attention until this morning, he said the same thing, only a little bit more sadly.  Piper sighed and agreed.  Both of them looking a bit forlorn.  John and I looked at each other and realized this was the first year they didn’t go trick or treating.  No candy to count or put into piles or trade.  

Oh shoot.

We had given away every piece of our candy.  We promised to go look for more, we’d been told by several people that the Halloween candy was already gone.

Shoot times a gazillion.

They shook their heads and with a big sigh went downstairs to their rooms, saying, “It’s ok.  Don’t worry. We are fine.”

Fast forward an hour:  The doorbell rings.

There on the front porch, I kid you not, is one of our darling neighbors with a bucket full to overflowing with every sort of candy you could ever dream of.

“My wife found out about Finnegan and asked if he’d gone trick or treating.  I told her probably not and she said, that won’t do.  Take him this candy right now!  And here I am.”

Honestly, if I wasn’t unclean, I would have kissed him.

The squeals of delight (literal squeals) of my two children could have been heard on Mars.

I’m telling you—Angels and God are REAL.  They just come in people shapes.

(And thank you for the flowers, the bread, and the cookies—all of them made my heart rejoice.  Best friends EVER!)

OH AND THE FINALY LAST BEAUTIFUL THING—Henry and Chloe and Jenn and Hero surprised us with a long distance visit.  Honestly, I really did cry after.  They are all so beautiful and made my heart so happy!