Enjoying the Small Things

June 7, 2013 By Kelle

This month we were supposed to set out to repeat last year’s epic road trip. I am disappointed that we can’t do that anymore, but with Brett’s slow recovery from surgery, it’s just not in the cards. However, it did work out that the kids and I will be able to head to Michigan for a little while, and I’m looking forward to seeing my family this weekend, feeling soft Midwestern grass again, scouring Northern Michigan for some good adventures and filling my soul cup to the brim. It helps that we are heading out when we’re on around our eighth day of heavy gray skies and rain. Seattle, how do you do it?

So, there are two suitcases that I’m now unpacking because I am the worst overpacker in the history of mankind. If I don’t whittle down our stash, I will be the girl unzipping her suitcase in front of the check-in kiosk, embarrassingly pulling out random things to get the weight down. I once carried a hair dryer and two pairs of boots in a grocery bag on a plane because it saved me four pounds and fifty bucks. The endless possibilities of spending time with my brother and sister and cousins make it nearly impossible to pack sensibly. I mean, what if we follow through on our dream of remaking the Thrift Shop music video? We’ll need props. And a DeLorean. And what if we go dancing? We’ll need dance clothes. And what if the little kids want to put on a talent show? We’ll need leotards and boas and click-clack shoes. Needless to say, I am excited. And pre-weighing my suitcases.

*****

With that said, a friend sent me this quote this week, and it was such a gift to me, I’m throwing some tissue paper over it, taping a new card to it and re-gifting it to you:

“Our life’s work is to use what we have been given to wake up. If there were two people exactly the same-same body, same speech, same mind, same mother, same father, same house, same food, everything the same- one of them could use what he has to wake up and the other could use it to become more resentful, bitter, and sour. It doesn’t matter what you are given, whether it’s a physical deformity or enormous wealth or poverty, beauty or ugliness, mental stability or mental instability, life in the middle of a mad house or life in the middle of a peaceful silent desert. Whatever you’re given can wake you up or put you to sleep. That’s the challenge of now: what are you going to do with what you have already – your body, your speech, your mind?
May we all learn that pain is not the end of the journey, and neither is delight. We can hold them both – indeed hold it all – at the same time, remembering that everything in these quixotic, unpredictable, unsettled and unsettling, exhilarating and heart-stirring times is a doorway to awakening in our sacred world.” ~Pema Chödrön

And a few happies for your weekend – some of your Enjoying the Small Things moments:

More from Michigan soon.
You know what I’m going to do when I get there?
I’m going to make some flower wreaths for our hair. ‘Cuz it’s summer.
And I’m going to savor some really, really big hugs.

Happy Weekend Friends.

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