Small and Wonderful Things . . .

"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny?...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get." ~Anne Dillard

A few of the small and wonderful things which bring untold joy into my life. It's the small things in life which truly mean the most. Simple abundance . . . it's the best.



Yesterday in church was our Children's Sunday School Annual Presentation.   Once a year, near the end of the year, all of the children in our Primary Program (children's sunday school) present to us, the congregation, a special Sacrament Meeting program in which they tell us and show us all that they have been learning for the past year.  It is one of my favourite Sacrament Meetings.  We have a massive number of children in our Primary, the largest that I have ever experienced in all of my years in the church.  It is so good to see the all together like that and to see what they have been learning.  They did a wonderful job yesterday.  So grateful for these amazing youngsters who are the future of our church and their parents who are instructing them well in the home as well as their leaders and teachers in the church.  Children from the age of 12 and under participate in our Primary program.  This year their theme has been I Know the Scriptures are True.  Each month of the year they will have been taught a new aspect around that theme and learn a new song, scripture, etc.    What a wonderful presentation they put on!






For a brief moment yesterday I lost my Mobile Phone.  I would not have been so bothered if it had been my old mobile.  It was such a simple phone and served a simple purpose and could have easily been replaced.  My new one is like a mini computer.   I bring it to church with me because I have all of my church info on it and it is so quick to look things up on.  (We have wifi at church.)  I remembered using it in the Adult Sunday School Class for the lesson, and then when we got into Relief Society and I went to get it out for the lesson there, it was not in my bag.   Talk about feeling panicked.   I had no idea where it had gone.   I left the room and went to the library and dumped my church bag out onto the counter in there.  No phone.  I felt sick and like crying.   It is worth a lot of money, although I did get it for free.  I do have a phone plan that I pay for each month which would continue for the next 22 months whether I had the phone or not.   I said a prayer and then went back out into the hall.  I looked into the Relief Society Room via the window in the door and I could see my phone sitting under the chair I had vacated a few moments earlier.  I have never felt so relieved in a long while.  Why I hadn't noticed it there when I was in there I will never know.  It was so obviously there.  I am so grateful that it was not lost.  I told Todd I need to get a special wallet to put it in that will not so easily fall out of my bag.

 

I think there was a Santa Claus Parade in the area that I come from this past weekend.  My oldest daughter Eileen had messaged me from the mall where she and Tim were waiting for it.   My youngest daughter Amanda posted this photo.  (I have erased a few people in the back who wouldn't want to be seen)   Maryn and Cameron watching the parade or at least waiting for it to start.  I don't know what that is on their faces, some kind of glow stick thing.  I am so grateful for these little snippets I get.   I, at least, get little glimpses into their lives that othewise I would not ever know about.

 

So grateful for the delete button in my e-mail.  As soon as I see the words Black Friday . . .  I press delete.  Not interested in anything at all which celebrates or participates in such a horrible  example of greed and gluttony, and which helps to bring out the worst in mankind.

I wish it was as easy to delete people who do the same thing, or who are hurtful/ignorant/mean-spirited, etc.  I have a few of those in my life and it never gets any easier to put up with them no matter how  much you try to ignore their actions or forget about them.  They rear their ugly heads periodically and can't seem to be erased!

I will never understand mean-spiritedness.  Especially from people who consider themselves to be Christians.  "Mean-spiritedness" and "Follower of Christ" are two things which don't really belong together, but I guess none of us are perfect.  I try hard to forgive, but it is difficult to forget when they keep behaving in the same way.  Its pretty hard to ignore most of the time.  On the outside I laugh and shake my head at the small mindedness of some people, but inside I confess it does rankle a tiny bit.



The impending Thanksgiving Feast.   We have two Elders invited for dinner on the day this year.  American ones and so I will be doing a mini feast for the four of us.   I look forward to it.  I might even get the Christmas Tree put up.   Its already up in our church vestibule and what a whopper that one is.  To the Ceiling.  I have never seen such a large one! I should have taken a photo.  Ginormous is the word!  And unusual to see it up before the end of November.




 Having a special someone to share all of this with, being able to hold hands in church, to reach out while we are watching telly and touch fingers, to hear him breathing as he lays next to me in the night.  Praying together.   The sharing of a life with someone special is a great gift from God.  May I never take this for granted.


And those are my small and wonderfuls for this week. My days are filled with an abundance of blessings. Maybe that is because I have a heart and eyes that look for them. At the end of the day it is the small things in life which truly matter the most . . .


A thought to carry with you . . .

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 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: 
for thereby some have entertained 
angels unawares.” ~ Hebrews 13:2
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Spiritual Enlightenment

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Pulled Beef Tacos.


May the week ahead of you be filled with many small and wonderful things. Along the way don't forget . . .

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And I do too!