Happy, Happy, Happy Me!

I admit it.

I didn’t want to crawl out of bed at 6 AM on my day off, tiptoe around my house to avoid waking my sleeping husband and child, and drive to a 7:20 AM prayer gathering at a nearby high school.  (Pro Tip: When reading my blog, it’s always a good idea to have your tiny violin ready.)

Now, let me be clear: it’s not that I didn’t want to pray, or that I didn’t want to pray with that group of people, or even quite that I didn’t want to get up early in the morning to do it.  It was just . . . my day off.  My big chance to sleep in and lounge around in my PJs with my family (assuming the youngest member of the family feels like sleeping in, too).  Have you got your tiny violin tuned up?

Of course, I said that I would do it, so I set my alarm, stayed up too late baking macaroons for the church fancy cookie sale (macaroons are fancy, right? they are made of coconut!), and woke up at 4:30 to a toddler demanding to sleep in my bed.  So: not the most restful night.

After sending Zoe back to her own bed at 5:15 (where she slept till 8, bless and curse her), I got up at 6 and astounded myself by leaving the house at 7 as planned.  (Pro tip: Leaving the house without a small child in tow really speeds up the process.)

I got in the car, and heard the last thirty seconds of “Happy We”.  This made me very . . . happy, of course!  I love that song, and hadn’t heard it in ages.

And then, I drove the ten minutes to the high school, with this in my rear view mirror:

Photo by me, feeling like a dork in the high school parking lot.

And then, I got to read the Bible and pray with a bunch of teachers and staff.  I am a pastor, so I really like doing that.  It was lovely.

I capped off the morning with an 8 AM grocery shopping spree (stocking stuffers make it a “spree”, I think) and haircuts for me and Zoe.  (At our favorite Litchfield salon, not at home.  Cutting hair is not one of my spiritual gifts.)

And guess what?  I can have this same experience every month!  I mean, not the haircuts, and probably not the music, and not necessarily the sunrise.  But the part where I get up early, pray with people, and do my weekly shopping?  All that can be mine, for the price of an hour’s sleep.  I believe that is what they call a steal of a deal.

I have a fuller-than-usual Sunday today–church, youth group bowling, confirmation class, an evening meeting–but I refuse to dread it or even whine about it, because I have been reminded that there are blessings in even the simplest, early morningest, most whine-inducing activities.

May you find blessing and joy in all you do today!  Or, you know, at least in one thing.  That is enough, and even a lot, some days.