The Simple Life

God has altered my life in many ways in the last two years. I have had setbacks in my health and yet my heart is overflowing. My health is not as great as it once was, but it could be much much worse, so I am grateful everyday I wake up and can stand and use my hands. I am blessed with inner strength to compel me to keep seeking and giving kindness, searching for those in need of my help, to introduce myself to new and challenging opportunities, to constantly grow in my belief and for the many blessing of love in my life. I have reunited with family members and I have asked others to stay away. I have made new friends, reconnected with old ones, and yes maybe have lost a few as well. I am blessed with a husband that adores me and blessed with all the four-legged children God had adopt me.

My personality has changed as well, I am still very crazy, but mature when needed. I love to laugh and have fun, but know when to be solemn. I try my best to do a good deed everyday, and yet sometimes they bite me in the butt. I am a child of God just doing the best she can to stay focused on the blessings I have and not ask for things I do not need. God has sent to me another daughter, this time from Brazil. Ana Paula is beautiful, caring, smart and sweet as summer corn. A blessing that I did not ask for but God gave to me knowing I needed her and she needs us.

I used to be all about the amount of materials things and how many more could I own. Now, I wear a plastic paw print bracelet in place of the diamond one. I carry a purse that was made by a group that supports and feed homeless dogs in place of the Gucci. Brand names have been replaced with comfortable and affordable. All these material things are pretty, but so is a child’s smile, a puppy taking a nap, or walking barefoot in the sand.

What is in my heart is what is most important not what I wear on my body. I am a softer person now inside, unlike before when I was full of so much hate and anger. I look for the simple pleasures God gave to all of us for my appreciation and to heighten my spirit; a sprouting new flower, a breathtaking sunrise, the picturesque full moon, the dogs all playing and running, the spider spinning her web, the puffy white clouds obscuring the bright blue sky, the vigorous sound of thunder and the rhythm of the rain. A mother bird bring her open mouthed young provisions for breakfast, and the stars I look up to each night as I thank God for my life, the beauty He gave me, the love He gave me, and the know how for doing things to help myself and the attitude to get it done.

So today, as I celebrate the season of Lent, I again thank God for me, simple old me, for who I am, for what I have, and for the love in my heart that overflows each day.