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The Sweetness of Life

Sweetness definition:  Noun
1. the quality of being pleasant to the mind and/or feelings
2. a generalized term of approval; gratifying

Our lives are ever-changing.
Our lives are fleeting.
Our lives are vapors.
However, are our lives sweet?

Today is a Saturday.
I love Saturdays.

My Saturdays have changed and evolved over the last 5+ decades.
This day has always been SUPER busy or SUPER relaxed.
It has been a day for chores, catching up on everything, errands, sports, laundry, family, sleeping in, cleaning, doing nothing, laughing, helping others, napping, etc. etc. etc.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is my Saturdays are never long enough!!

We are given 86,400 seconds every day. However, these seem to fly by faster on a Saturday.

Today, I made chocolate and biscuits for breakfast. As a child, this was a treat my mom would fix once in a while. The rarity of this treat made it even sweeter. When she fixed it, she made homemade biscuits. Sometimes she wouldn’t even make round biscuits. She would make homemade biscuits in a cake pan and we would cut them into squares. I can still see the warm, fluffy pieces of biscuits being lifted onto my plate with steam rising from the top.

I never make homemade biscuits but I still love this treat. I don’t make it often because my family doesn’t really like it. My husband thinks it’s a strange concoction, especially for breakfast. Today, I think, is the first time I ever saw not one but two of my sons eat it but they didn’t even eat it the “correct” way – with the chocolate poured over open-faced biscuits with extra sugar and butter added. Instead, they simply dipped a biscuit into the chocolate and ate it.

As I thought about this, I still thought these were sweet moments. And, I thought about what actually makes our lives so sweet.

This week my life has been made sweeter by the following:

1.       Having uninterrupted time with my husband – just talking, laughing, & watching TV
2.       Being able to comfort someone who has lost someone they love
3.       Dressing up like Abraham Lincoln for President’s Day for my students in Room 106
4.       Writing a thank you note to someone who took the time to speak kind words to me
5.       Having someone send me a book recommendation
6.       Receiving a handwritten thank you note from someone because they felt I impacted their life
7.       Receiving a picture of my grandson relaxing with his dad
8.       Having a migraine disappear after 17 days
9.       Hearing birds chirping outside reminding me spring is on the way
10.    Having someone take the time to make me smile when they are carrying huge burdens in their own life
11.    Receiving words of encouragement from unexpected sources
12.    Having someone check on me to see how I am feeling
13.    Spending time with my husband & sons as they say beautiful prayers for our family & each other
14.    Receiving a video of my grandson running with his dog
15.    Enjoying time at the salon with a stylist who makes me laugh & makes me beautiful at the same time.
16.    Having someone bake me a batch of brownies – just because
17.    Having someone send me a funny meme because it reminded them of me
18.    Being uplifted, challenged, and convicted in my personal Bible study this week
19.    Having someone say they were thankful to be my friend
20.    Encouraging a parent of one of my students
21.    Remembering my own grandma who passed over 40 years ago this week
22.    Receiving a text from a friend saying they were praying for me
23.    Seeing your sons make an impact by looking for ways to help others
24.    Enjoying a day of teaching with a son as a colleague
25.    Entrusting Room 106 to a son as a substitute

The month of February, although the shortest month of the year, has been the longest, most dreary month of 2019, so far. However, this last week, the last full week of February, was also the week for celebrating Random Acts of Kindness. I think I received many kindnesses this week. I hope I committed several acts of kindness, as well. So, even though there were only glimpses of sunshine in a week full of rainy days, there were also SEVERAL moments of sweetness.

Thinking about the sweetness of life has helped me realize every day in my life can be as wonderful as a Saturday.

I hope you can find the sweetness in your life and enjoy the 86,400 seconds of each day to the fullest.

Love, Jan 💖


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