Drawing a Line in the Lemonade

It’s Sunday, Journeyer, and this is what I have to say: The wheels on the mini-van go ‘round and ‘round…

This time we’re in Virginia for another training seminar that Fave and Warren are doing.

I’m the unofficially official videographer for this event and let me just say my son has figured out how to treat his mama right.

This introduction would make any mother beam with pride: “That beautiful, amazing woman over there? That’s my mom, a great addition to this camp. She’s going to be taking videos of the lifts so we can do video analysis later. Everyone say, ‘Hi, Mom.’ ”

I had the pleasure of meeting twenty-two delightful people from all over the United States.

As I looked through the photos and notes from the week, I couldn’t help but notice how those happy moments offset those not-so-happy ones.

It’s a bit like drawing a line in that proverbial glass of lemonade.

We refuse to be defined by the The Five D’s that seem to take up so much space in our heads and our hearts.

When our happy organ starts to go dry, we fill that well back up simply by choosing to pay homage to those simple and sizable pleasures that make us smile or laugh or feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

In the middle of the week, I made this note: HAPPY F-N HAPPENS!!!!!

I finally figured out how to find Facebook post URLs and then how to shorten them with that most amazing Bit-ly program that every online writer should have in her toolbox. Bitly.com, Baby. One of your new best friends.

Clarification. I thought I had mastered something new. On Friday all of that sort of unraveled.

No. Nothing sort of about it.

I discovered that not only hadn’t I learned how to do this task correctly, I’d BLASTED cyberspace with erroneous links.

All. Over. The. Internet.

That’s the bad news.

Here’s the glass half full side of it.

Other Happy Moments include seeing my two boys bonding a little more and enjoying one another’s company.

Seeing this antique car, fully restored to its original glory, with a modern day bike rack on the back. How much fun is that?!

I reread the Letting Go inspirations/worksheet and had an epiphany, that brought with it a release of tension.

“To let go is not to be in the middle arranging everything, but to allow others to effect their own destinies.”

Even though I’ve always worked as a teacher in some capacity, even though I fully believe in Maya Angelou’s “When you learn, teach. At our best we are all teachers,” I do not have to always be wearing that mentor’s cap.

When I read that statement this time, it came to me as a gentle reminder that the best teachers allow people to learn from their own experiences, be they in the form of failure or success.

I do not always have to be imparting knowledge and encouraging thought…

I love entertaining as much as I love learning, so hosting a spaghetti dinner for Big Guy’s soccer team was one of my week’s happiest highlights.

They are one of the most gracious and well-rounded group of young men you can imagine.

Sixteen boys took over two floors of our home, and we barely knew they were here.

Guilty pleasures are a must and, though I don’t play Candy Crush nearly as often these days, I still feel excitement in my veins when I finally complete a level that I’ve been stuck on for months!

This pay-it-forward gift from a good friend couldn’t have shown up on my doorstep at a more opportune time!

She knows how much I love writing letters on stationary!

Coincidentally, I also put together the first of five-pay-it-forward gifts to people who responded to my Facebook pay-it-forward post.

Knowing that there are a few items we don’t think about purchasing when we’re setting up a new house, I gifted Fave with a few necessities I’m sure he’ll need for his new place.

Every bachelor pad needs specialty drinking mugs

There's nothing like family stories that live into legacy, and this weekend another tale was born.

Fave inherited my penchant for mixing metaphors...

Here are the two Annah-isms, though I guess they'd be called Fave-isms, that materialized through my otherwise intelligent, articulate, and well-spoken son: "I slept like a light." "We're trouble solving."

And I just love the Hampton Inn’s comforts and perks and the little touches that make being away from home feel like we are home.

How about you, Journeyer? What Moments filled your happy organ last week? Would love for you to share one or more of them here so that we can live vicariously through your joy, too!

Until next time, yours in healing, hope, and happiness.

         ~AE

 Soon…