I was going to write a serious, angst entry about change, and being patient with one's life, and all the things that a grey day can make one groan about; but then I found these in our files. Since they were taken in late summer, the camera lens is terribly dirty and so everything looks shrouded in mist.
But they are such a perfect example of our family's inability to take a decent family photo that they made me laugh. Often, just before I smile for a photo, I'm wildly threatening the children (one in particular; can you guess? Sal, you know!) with dire promises of desserts taken away or long time-outs if they don't behave themselves and smile. If the photographer happens to take the photo early, they usually capture me with a horrid grimace on my face.
My sister was taking the photos. Clearly she began seeing the absurdity of the whole situation and added her own contribution here:
Wait? What is this I see? Everyone smiling at the camera??? Too bad the lens was crap or we'd actually have had something.
So tonight, I challenge change and grey days to take away the sweetness of daily life with the ones I love. I yield to the balm of extraordinary gifts, wrapped in the paper of dailiness that sometimes lures me into complacency. An active life, surely, is the one lived in gratitude.
And wackiness. And with kids who can't sit still.
My friend, T, is disciplining herself by writing down something she's thankful for every day this month. To her list I add my own: Martin's curry, floors that are easily cleaned of rice, a wealth of different apples, especially Pink Lady, good books read together in room with red curtains hanging at the windows.
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