Monday, May 19, 2014

Five Good Things














Hello! Happy Monday. Time for Five Good Things. When I take a moment to focus on good feelings, acknowledge good things, I find it gives me an improved perspective for facing Monday. Because, seriously, Mondays are brutal... First World, suburban crisis brutal, my shoelace broke and the wifi in this cafe is flakey, brutal. Five Good Things is not a toothpaste-sparkly-crosstitiched-affirmations kind of exercise. I'm not trying to gloss over realities, or paint a rainbow on a train wreck. I just need to look beyond the mess on my desk, the frustrations, and noise of things I face/ignore/deny/suffer/endure/whine about, so that I can acknowledge that even in the midst of the whole spectrum of discomforts and disappointments, there might be something shiny, someone kind, a new point of view, a gift, a blossom, a hope. Five Good Things redirects the typical Monday Mind, the chatter that wants to bemoan the laundry list of chores, obligations, complaints, and setbacks, and encourages me to begin with gratitude.

Have you ever heard of Big Sunday? We went to the school farm to complete a couple more details of finishing the chicken coop... we still need to add wire beneath the roof, switch out some hardware, add trim, but it's close. It's really, really, close. This visit was about moving the coop to its permanent home, and so we went to the school farm during a Big Sunday event. We met a big group of volunteers, from different business and organizations, all volunteering together, in corporation with this organization... Big Sunday! Their Mission: To build community through community service. We believe that everyone has some way that they can help somebody else. And their motto: Everyone helps, everyone wins. Isn't this great?

Max, Alex, William, and Geoff added some temporary 2x4 pieces so that the coop could be lifted by many hands, at once. This bit of cleverness was a great help, and made the heavy job much easier. Of course the biggest help was the many volunteers available to heave-ho! I read that the Big Sunday event was a success, and those volunteers did a lot to get more jobs done, like pulling up huge sections of ice plant, and developing ideas for keeping squirrels out of the garden beds. Yeah, there is no end to the things that need to get done, in a garden, on a farm, but it's always a whole lot better with Big help!

Good Things...

1. William, Maria and I made one more visit to Pasadena, to make a repair in the kitchen, play Contract Rummy, see Julie and Rebekah's new place, and to get more hugs before Grandma, Becky, and my Mom go to Oregon.

2. Driving to L.A., and from L.A., with no traffic. This actually falls into the subheading: Unbelievably Awesome Things

3. This week Chcikenblog is 12 years old. (And also, I still mistype chiecken, every time. Not good, but amusing.)

4. Alex is finishing a last final, right now. Max has 19 total days of school left. Maria has 24 total days of school left.

5. We have zucchini coming out of our garden. More lasagna! Grandma Nancy's zucchini bread!

What do you do with zucchini? What good are you enjoying this morning, this week?

5 comments:

Sylvia said...

Happy Chickenblogiversary! I'm sorry I don't have a blog to spread the word, but I want to thank you for years of wonderful blogging.

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Thank you, Sylvia.
Thank you very much~

Peaches said...

zucchini fritters, zucchini noodles, zucchini fries

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Okay... I am going to need the fritter recipe, and "zucchini noodles??" Please tell us more!

Anonymous said...

Zucchini Bread...............always a family favorite around here in the South!