Because I don't post on Saturdays

My heart is shaken and stirred.  Lately my posts have been surface stuff.  The stuff so many of us read to go goo eyed over.  I've stayed away from anything ankle or knee deep over the last couple of months.

But sometimes something happens that makes me think...I need to do this.  I need to post something from my heart and not from popularity.

Do you have a piece of clothing, dinner set, make up, or piece of jewelry you stash away until just the right time?  I admit, I do.  I have things that I never wear or use because I have labeled them special occasion pieces.  They are reserved for a dinner or an outing where I feel they would be warranted.  I had a top that kept the tags on it for two months just waiting for the perfect occasion to don it.

I think it may be OK to say we all have those items in our homes.  The ones we look at with big eyes and dreamy romance.

Yesterday, though, I decided to stop with the nonsense of labeling things for special occasions. And I think you should too.

For a few moments I'm going to be very cliche.  I have to be.  I have to say things you know and have had drilled into your cerebral cortex for years.  They have great purpose.  A great purpose we seem to forget over time.

If you're reading this in the morning enjoying a cup of coffee then congratulations!  You made it to another day.  Another day that you can go out do what you need to and maybe what you want to.  Do you realize how HUGE that is?

The fact you saw yesterday to completion and went to sleep only to wake up to do it all again - that was not guaranteed to you, me, him, or her.  Honestly, a lot of people who had yesterday are not here today.  They didn't roll over and out of bed this morning.  They didn't walk in the door from a shift.  They simply ran out of time.

Maybe it was a wreck, a drug overdose, a freak accident, or the end of a fight against a disease.

For some strange and maybe a not to be understood reason you and I were spared.  

Think about all the things you do in a day that are risks you never even think about.  The biggest one is getting in a car.  Every time you buckle up and pull out onto the street you start a very strange game of roulette.  

Now just going in a popular and crowded place is a risk.  With terrorism both foreign and natural born we aren't sure when someone will chose to do the unthinkable.

You eat from a restaurant not knowing if the food is tainted.

Every single day we take risks.

Every single day we make it...so far.

I'm baffled by how much we nag, stress, and worry while we are in the middle of day not promised.

That makes each new morning one thing:

You are here!  Maybe it is a chaotic mess right now but, baby you are here!  You woke up to a morning of sunshine or rain.  A Saturday of cleaning, shopping, working, or maybe football.  You woke up.  You have another chance at getting things right by being gifted another day to smile, laugh, hug, love, and be.

Life can get messy and complicated.  I get that. (Hello Snap Chat!) I get stressed quickly and I fail to see the good that surrounds me.  Then my personality goes down the tube.  I fake smiles and laughs.  All the while failing to see the forest for the trees.

Why should I allow myself to get in a slump when God gave me another day to thrive.

This weekend I'm thankful for that "another day" because I'm very conscious that a lot of others are not getting it.  Their days, like ours, were numbered, and their numbers were called this week. Where I groan over kids fighting -- those other families mourn, gathered together, making arrangements to lay a life to rest.

Where I get frustrated at feeling alone in the world of parenting -- other families are explaining to their children that a mom or dad isn't coming back home.

When I feel like I have a burden that is too heavy -- someone else has a burden that if I was brushed with it would crush me to bits.

Two options now lie before me: I can keep a defeated mentality or I can chin up sunshine.  I can brush my hair, brush my teeth, and smile.  That special occasion top can be worn to the grocery store.  That bracelet I think is too fancy for the every day can become my regular accent piece.  We can eat on the good dishes and drink the champagne that has been around for about a year now.  

I can freely accept the gift and compliment of having one more day.  One more, beautiful, never promised to me day.  And I can enjoy it and everything in it....my kids, my husband, strangers, my dog, my home, the chores, even the mundane.

Live your life fully...just start now.

xoxoxo

Amanda