grateful

making rolls

bacon-wrapped waterchestnuts & aprons

i saw a girl on campus this week who didn't have her left arm.  i got to thinking what that would be like. if i didn't have a left arm, i think i'd dream dream dream of what it would be like to have one.  it is something so simple--something that everyone has--but that one car accident could claim or one blip in my dna could have prevented.  and for it then to be impossible to ever have one...  king lear, over his daughter's dead body, cries, "this feather stirs; she lives!  if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever i have felt."  i imagine i'd have dreams sometimes of waking up with an arm, or of scientific miracles that'd make it possible to attach one perfectly.

that is an unparalleled happiness!  for something impossible to suddenly be given to you, something you've waited and dreamed for.  getting that arm would be a source of total joy and gratitude for the rest of my life.

and here i am, two arms, two legs, good hearing, good eyes, both parents and all siblings alive and healthy, a warm warm bed and good good food, money in the bank.  i do not have diabetes, or cancer, or wheat or dairy allergies.  my family who i love loves me too.  i know who i am, i love God, who also knows who i am and loves me.

how am i not in a constant state of constant excitement?

what a joy this thing life is.

"there is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish.  the thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have.  remember scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not here any more."