The good moments that bring a smile to my face along with the bad moments that I can allow to ruin my day or I can decide to face with a positive outlook. Joyful and beautiful moments like birds visiting our feeders, making art on a cookie canvas, weeding the garden and enjoying the flowers, and Easter with my family.
And bad moments like the fact that Easter Sunday was the fourth anniversary of my father's trip to heaven. But as I mentioned before, I had a choice. A choice to either wallow in my sorry and loss or a choice to remember the multitude of wonderful memories I have from the years I was able to spend with my father. I chose to remember.
And it never ceases to amaze me how often I pick a random book out of my stack from the library and it coincides with something that has gone on in my week. This week's random book was called Here in the Garden and it was the story of a boy choosing to remember the beautiful moments he once shared with a pet rabbit. And although the rabbit was missed beyond measure, the boy chose joy. He chose to think of all the wonderful days they had been able to share.
Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.
I'm sorry about your father. It's good that you can look back on the good times and place your focus there.
ReplyDeleteThis was a timely post for me. My husband left for a short business trip early this morning and we had a bit of an argument before he left. Then on his way to the airport we received word that his mom, who has been on hospice a few months, is not doing well. I used to be a hospice nurse and judging from the information we are receiving from out-of-state family, she probably has hours or perhaps a couple of days left. Needless to say, choosing joy is going to be my challenge today.
I followed you here from the Literacy Musing linkup. I hope you'll visit me at LifeWithDee.com. My post today is about favorite childhood books.
Have a beautiful day.
Thank you so much for stopping by Miss Deanna. You and your family will de3finitely be in my prayers. Hugs :0)
DeleteThank you so much.
Delete"But the really important events, the events that define my life, are the many moments in between. The every day moments, that while possibly not extraordinary, are the ones that give me opportunity to choose joy and see beauty in God's creation." Beautifully put. Thanks for sharing with the Literacy Musing Mondays Linkup!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Miss Beth 💖
DeleteSeems like a good book for helping children understand death and loss. Thanks for sharing this resource at the #LMMLinkup.
ReplyDeleteYes. Another of my absolute favorite books about life and death is The Story of Bud by Laura Eckroat. It is the story of a bud's journey through becoming a leaf and then having to drop from the great tree he was a part of.
DeleteI'm going to pin this for future reference; my boys have three 3 great grandparents that are all in their 90's and this sounds like the perfect gift to help them deal with loss when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking ahead :0)
Delete