Paying Attention

For a lot of my life, I think I forgot to pay attention. Life just kept zipping and zooming along and happening to me. But a little over seven years ago, I took a deep breath. And I stopped. And closed my eyes. And prayed. And made a conscious decision to pay closer attention to the blessings in my life. To find ways I can be a blessing to others. To appreciate the small, simple things of life. And to be thankful.

Every day presents new challenges. There are those yucky grown-up to-do lists. (Or in my case, should-have-done lists.) And I miss the mark so many times it's just not even funny. But every day presents another chance to do it right. That's one of the ways grace works.

But if I have a choice between dusting the living room or putting away the clean laundry (and finding matching socks in the process) or raking the leaves ... and getting all chalk-covered creating a giant hockey-rink-basketball-court-waterfall with a great nephew ... guess which one I'm going to choose?

My Sunday morning prayer for my dear readers: That you remain open to slight course changes in your plans to make room for the most important things. And that you remember to pay attention.