Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
~James Russell Lowell
Joel’s class at school operates on a system where they earn “FROG Bucks” for good behavior (FROG stands for something but I can’t remember what at the moment). These can then be spent on loot periodically at the Frog Bucks Store. Today Joel spent some of his hard earned reward on Blow Pops, Ring Pops and other such confections. When he got home he offered to share with all his brothers. No prodding needed. Sharing was his idea all along, it seems.
Later I was feeling sorry for myself. I had a rough day. When I saw that Daniel had gotten into my purse and broken my new sunglasses, I might have cried a little bit. The tears just leaked out. I know it’s juvenile; I know they are only sunglasses. It’s not that they were awesome or anything. I was just hoping they would help me avoid developing the wrinkles one gets from squinting into the sun too much. I’m feeling old these days. I’ll be half-way to 70 this month. Anyway, it wasn’t about the sunglasses. It was just all the pent up frustration of the day. So I was standing there in the kitchen crying trying to figure out what to make for dinner and Seth just came up to me and without a word gave me a big hug. He is such a wise, old soul in so many ways. He knew just what I needed. Then of course all his brothers followed suit and came and gave me hugs. It was a lovely thing.
As I listened to my boys pray at various occasions today I noticed that they were making an effort to remember Nate. They prayed for him to recover from his illness and for him to feel better. I was touched by their simple faith and love for each other.
This evening I downloaded an mp3 of Luciano Pavarotti singing “La Donna E Mobile” (free—you can download it here). Daniel was crying and wouldn’t be consoled—I guess he had had a rough day too—so I held him and we listened to it together a couple of times. The music seemed to do the trick and help him calm down. Ah, yes: lovely music to soothe even the savage beast. :) Maybe I should just play opera to him all the time.
That is my random assortment of loveliness for the day. Please share your lovely things with me. When I am having bad days like today it helps me to read them.
What loveliness did the day bring to you?
2 comments:
Half-way to 70, huh? You crack me up.
Two very lovely things happened to me yesterday. Gavin was a beast all morning (not lovely), then had a long time-out (not lovely), but was a GEM at the dentist immediately after that. I anticipated a harrowing experience, and it was fantastic.
The other lovely thing happened just before I crawled into bed. Garry was downstairs folding a veritable mountain of laundry...without being asked. LOVELY!
Jack is teething again. For the second night, the two of us did not sleep much at all. In fact, he won't sleep unless I hold him. Which was fine until 1 am when I just HAD to lay down and sleep. It lasted only and hour and a half before he was up crying again. It was one of those "I don't think I can do this" moments. The lovely in all of this? Morning came. And even though it's cloudy and cooler, the sun is out. Night is over. Then, I went to Target this morning to return a sweater that didn't fit and bought a bag of Cheetos instead. That's lovely. And then Jack fell asleep on the way home. Even though I can't get to sleep, the fact that I can be on the computer or doing something for me...even for a minute...is lovely. Jill, buy yourself some Cheetos. ;)
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