TGIF

This week I'm starting a new Friday blog post.  I will just up and confess that I adapted this idea from Brene Brown.  I don't think she will mind that I borrowed her practice, especially if you buy her genius books The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly.  Or sign up for her art journaling e-course based on The Gifts of Imperfection.  I'm loving it!  Trust me, it's a great gift to yourself.

So, here's my TGIF for this week:

What I'm Trusting:
That God never runs out of good.  That his mercies really are new every morning, as the book of Lamentations tells us.  In this strange new season of the empty nest, I'm trusting that good will come wrapped in different trimmings.  I'm leaning in to that so I don't miss it.

How I practice Gratitude:
Since I'm watching closely for the goodness of God in every day, I've taken up an old habit. When my kids were growing up, I used to keep a "day in the life" journal.  I took one polaroid picture every day, capturing just one beautiful moment - the sun on the window sill, the kids jumping in piles of leaves, a fresh stack of clean laundry.  I pasted that photograph in a big blank book and wrote a couple of sentences about it.  I'm going back to this practice, although now I'm doing it digitally, using an app for my journal.  This week I've started snapping pictures throughout the day.  At the end of the day, I gather them all into my Gifts of The Day digital journal and scribble a few notes on the edges.

What Inspires me:
Vulnerability.  Which, as Brene Brown teaches us, is not weakness, but the courage to show up and be authentic.  This week, Dennis made a mistake, and not one he could get out of without attention.  I so admired him because he said, "Well, this wasn't the right decision.  But I'm not going to make it worse by staying on this path."  Because he was willing to change course, it's been very evident this week that God has confirmed, "This was the way, walk in it."

What's Fun:
Friends!  We are normally terrible hermits, but this week we intentionally made plans to go out with friends.  Old friends.  The best thing about being in mid-life is having friends you've done life with for so long.  And speaking of making plans and having to change them, we were nuts enough to plan to meet friends for dinner out on Valentine's Day.  A sign of how hermit-y we are is that we had no comprehension of what restaurants are like on Valentine's Day.  Valentine's Day + Friday = Bedlam!  Even though we went early (I'm talking Senior Adult Hour), everywhere had two hour wait, and nobody took reservations.  And it was pouring down rain.  And we drove clear across town to try and find a different place.  We almost ended up eating soup at Panera Bread.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Unless you've been thinking about steak all day. And just drove across town to do it.) Anyway, rain + being nuts + accidental restaurant good fortune = a long evening of laughter with good friends.  And steak.

What's your TGIF?  I'd love to hear from you.