Today I choose to be happy… Yesterday was a day for choosing to be a nurse- yesterday I ran around doing my best to meet the needs of my patients, grabbing a 15-minute lunch halfway through my 13-and-a-half-hour day. Yesterday I drove home wondering if I had been enough, if I had failed them or helped them, feeling bad because there was so little I could do for my one patient who was so alone and going to a nursing home because he couldn’t care for himself anymore… That was yesterday.

Tomorrow I may again confront sadness and ask God, “Why?” Tomorrow I may cry and wonder if life is meant to be pain-filled… Tomorrow I may ask myself deep questions, like A. A. Milne’s Eeyore. (“Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, ‘Why?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Wherefore?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Inasmuch as which?’ and sometimes he didn’t quite know what he was thinking about…”)

But today I am grateful. Today I am grateful for the little blessings that are with me every day- the things that fill my heart with rainbows when the rain is washing through my soul. Today I am grateful for days of sunshine that warm cold places and make me feel alive, I am grateful for my patient who told me I am a good nurse and thanked me for everything I did for her, I am thankful for laughter with my Grandma and sisters as we sit on the deck and sip ice coffee… I am so happy for a weekend off work, and a Sunday I can go to church, and a world full of little blessings.

Blessings like coffee sipped on the porch- it’s the perfect way to start a day, and it’s even better when you sip it from an orange mug that was a gift from a very dear friend. The aroma surrounds you like love, and you feel loved…

I am thankful for my goldfish that swim so peacefully in their little world, while we crazy people run miles in every direction. Sometimes I look at them and imagine how they feel- it’s a coping mechanism I think, albeit an odd one.

I’m thankful for silly little lions who snooze peacefully in the strangest places- the other day he was curled up right in the middle of my sister’s mini succulent garden. Today he chooses the safe haven of a car seat sitting on the porch. Just looking at him makes me feel lazy.

I love summer, I love living in the country, and I love cornfields… Green and growing, raising their arms to heaven, they inspire me also to lift my hands.

I am blessed with the ability to work hard, to scrub the tub, and I inhale the aroma of Lysol and I am thankful.

I carry a stack of books up to my room. They bear a silent testimony to the things I thought about in my spare time this week. One of them is my favorite Bible- a gift from my sister and the one I read while I drink my coffee. Bookends is undeniably silly but somewhat amusing, and a great distraction when you need to go to bed and don’t want to. The other two are thought provoking and slightly more serious- the one I dare not argue with and the other I have dared, though whether I should have or not I don’t know. I am happy for books.

Today I am happy. Tomorrow I may need to come back and read through this and remind myself how blessed I am. Next week I may pause in the thick of the battle, lay down my sword (i.e. my stethoscope), and scroll through these pictures. There may be tears in the future, but I have no doubt there will also be more blessings like these- “For the One who loves me makes me richly blest… ”

What makes you happy today? What puts a smile on your face? Comment below and tell me- I’d love to hear it!