Good Things are Right in Front of Us

Do you ever look out the window dreaming of a better day? A better year? A better life?

I do.

My year didn't start off so good. Our furnace went out the coldest week Seattle has seen in 10 years (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration). I got a to-the-rim flat tire on a bridge, in the rain during the morning rush hour (a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day). I had to pull an all-nighter while my son had an emergency appendectomy.

Hello, January 2017.

I'm only two weeks in and already dreaming of 2018.

Let's just say I became a bit self-absorbed. 

Once I stopped feeling sorry for myself I realized that these are mostly first world problems. 

We had the financial resources to have a new furnace installed and the electricity to power space heaters while we waited. We are part of the 9% of the world fortunate enough to own a vehicle (actually three). We have access to immediate medical care and in our case the hospital is only 15-20 minutes away.

Sometimes the good things are right in front of us.

I was thinking about this as I left my barre class this morning. If I lived in Sierra Leone and had to carry a jug of water on my head like our sponsored child, Fattu I would not need an exercise class. Hmmmmm. Another first world problem.

Good things ARE right in front of us. 

Thank you tap water. Bottled water. Britta water. And my personal favorite sparkling water.

As a result, I'm striving to be more aware of the daily comforts I enjoy. It's hard because I have to push against my natural slide into entitlement. How quickly I forget.

So, I'm not saying that dreaming of a new day is bad. I'm not saying that wanting things to be better is bad. Or that wanting to live your life a new way is bad. All I'm saying is that generally the good things are already right in front of us.

I know the good things are right in front of me.

If only I'd open my eyes to see them.