Weight of the World

Mike and I recently celebrated 20 years of marriage, we have come a very long way in those 20 years. Very few possessions have stayed with us from wedding gift to modern day. Sheets and towels have long ago been replaced. Last year we got new pots. A couple of prints remain along with some beautiful candle sticks and some table linens. There is one other item; my Grandmother's wedding gift to us... A bathroom scale.


ancient and battered & quite likely inaccurate

Yes, a bathroom scale! At the time I secretly thought to myself '"What the hell...who gets their granddaughter a bathroom scale for a wedding present?" Then I wondered if my Gran was okay, maybe she was like the crazy aunt in National Lampoon's Christmas who wrapped up her cat and her jello mold as Christmas presents. I cherished glimpses of my Gran laughing it up and partying the night away during our reception, just in case it were true. I wanted some sparkle to remember her by.

My Gran kept all of her wits about her until the very end almost. She celebrated many anniversaries with us and always had some quiet wisdom for me when life was challenging. I never ever had the courage to ask Gran why she thought a bathroom scale was a good wedding gift, why not a nice picture frame of a serving dish? I never asked but over the years I've figured it out.

I've been stepping on that scale daily for twenty years and never once has it measured the weight of my world. I weigh the same whether my problems are minor or seemingly insurmountable.

Knowing that, I use the scale as a check-up not just of my physical well-being but of my emotional well-being too. I step on and after I read my physical weight I ask myself - "What is the weight of my world today? What is weighing me down?" Then I get to work on losing that extra weight so that when I go out into the world I am not throwing my weight of the world around.

It seems like a funny exercise but then a bathroom scale was a funny wedding present. Gratitude today to my not so crazy Gran who even after all the years she has been gone reminds me everyday that under the weight of the world you are still the same as you were yesterday, and if you are going to lose some extra pounds the easiest ones to shed are the invisible ones weighing you down.

Thanks Gran.

Gratitude, Hope & Smiles are meant to be shared,

Michelle

Music that Will Move My Friday

Lets count the wonderful things about your boss going on holidays. Or lets not, I really like my boss, my kids really need me to maintain employment.

There is however one very wonderful thing about the boss being on holidays that I can talk about and really would be remise if I did not - Concert Tickets!

Somebody has to use them, and anybody could have I guess. Fortunately the opportunity filtered down to me. So last night Michael and I enjoyed an evening with the KW Symphony and the Jeans & Classics Band. Also very lucky for us the tribute was to the very fabulous U2!

Now there is a soundtrack for life. I must apologize to the concert goers in our proximity for the excessive toe tapping and butchering of pitch as we lamely attempted to sing along. Somethings you just can't help, kind of like a sneeze - you have no control and you can't do it without blinking.

Today I am grateful for a generous employer, a fabulous date and the music that will be stuck in my head all day today (that will make Friday hum!)

I'm leaving you with One performed by U2 and Mary J. Blije. A very beautiful rendition of a song that is not really about love but actually the very opposite. Funny how we can confuse discord with passion. Going to be checking myself today that I am actually doing things out of love not the absence of it.

Happy Friday!

Michelle

Just That Simple

Sometimes we just think too hard. We try to turn the mundane into magic.

Keep it simple gratitude today...

                                      ....hanging around my neck are the arms of a child.



Spend some moment everyday in reflection of gratitude and happiness. Even if the time found is standing in line for coffee...use is wisely.


Michelle


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Pssst, Pass the Remote

Michael celebrated another birthday this week. I say 'another' like he's an old fart, he's not old exactly (that would make me old too and well, no.) He has reached an age however where he has everything and no one is really quite sure what to buy him. Which leads to gifts like this....

The "Man Remote" has some clever control options. Clearly designed by a man, as evidenced by the "nagging" more/less and "fetch" features.