Silver Lining: being happy where you are

September 6, 2012

being happy where you are

People naturally look forward to things. And it's good. It's called hope, and people can't survive without hope. But it's easy to look forward too much, and then it's harder to be satisfied with the present. If only I had a little baby to hold in my arms, I think. If only we owned our own kitchen table and didn't have ugly mismatched chairs.


And then I skip out on the good moments. The moments like last night, when Sam fell asleep reading his textbook. It was so cute, watching him try to wake up and then fall back asleep before he had read a paragraph.


I don't want to skip out on these moments like my run past the temple last night. The sunset light was gorgeous, and there was a Young Women's group meeting on the lawn.


I think it's important to spend time being happy about what you have. This is such a great time in our family's life - we're young and in love and so blissfully poor that we don't even realize how blissfully poor we are. We don't have children yet, so we get to take 3-hour naps and take spontaneous trips together and stay up late laughing.


These are the moments. That and Sam's snoozing face on his open textbook and these hydrangeas on our beautiful table with the mismatched chairs.


What do you do to appreciate the present even while you're looking forward?
I love hearing your advice!

12 comments:

  1. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to write this and remind me of these things. You've blessed a life today:)

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  2. For me, I find that looking forward to things usually means I put too much expectation on future events, and when they finally arrive, I'm disappointed because it didn't live up to my expectations. Of course I've set my heart beyond anything reality can offer, so it's completely my fault.

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  3. You're amazing and inspired. THANK YOU For posting this! Love those flowers too. Honestly, I try not to think about the future. Obviously, you have to plan for the future. But constantly focused on it is definitely the wrong thing to do.

    Amanda @ weandserendipity.blogspot.com

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  4. loved this girl. and dont you know that the mis-matched look is in! i had a friend that recovered all her chairs a different color and with different fabric and all different chairs and it was gorgeous!

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  5. I love this! I always look forward to coming home and being the first person to be there so I have time to make it homey for my boyfriend. I look forward to having the boyf, reach his hand out on the table so he can hold my hand. I look forward to the boyf eating everything I make for him.

    xo,
    janmloves.blogspot.com
    I'm having a giveaway on my blog if you're interested :)

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  6. Needed this post today, Thanks darling :)

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  7. so perfect. its true. i look forward to showering and then getting right into bed afterwards and just laying there fora few moments. its the best.

    K

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  8. Thank you for writing this today. It truly has been a blessing to read believe it or not. It reminded me of how thankful I am to have the current life I have verses the life I would like later in life. I love my little moments with my hunny & his little girl & someday soon I would love to have our own little bebe but until then I just wanna love the current part of getting to see him interact with her knowing that he is a great father, watching her grow up & so much more! All such sweet moments in life with just us 3 & puppies until baby #2 arrives :)

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  9. Beautiful thoughts. The looking forward never stops....as the mother of 5 children, I still have to slow my days down a bit and just "be" fully present right where I am. Thankful and joyful. Enjoy those naps and uninterrupted conversations you have with your hubby. That is a precious time. ~ Susan www.solesearchingmamma.com

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  10. Oh the dose of this I needed. Thank you girl, for the reminder. My senior year of college is already a blur of meetings and homework and plan, plan, planning. It's the only way to keep my head above water, but I want to make sure I enjoy things about it, too!

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  11. I agree with Julie. I get my expectations way too high and then am continually disappointed. I'm trying to be better about appreciating and accepting the present and putting a reasonable amount of hope in the future. Also, children are great, but so are 3 hour naps and spontaneous trips :) I miss those like crazy. I think the more you can appreciate now the more you will be prepared to enjoy the future. And 8 years later we still have gross kitchen chairs and a hand me down table!! I thought we've have it made by now :) We do have a sweet flat screen TV though!

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  12. I love love love this! I find myself way too often rushing around to get the next thing done. Then I get overwhelmed and wish for things that I really don't need but I think will make it all better. I love the moments in my day when I just stop to look at my son who is pouring cheerios or whatever else he can get his little hands on all over the floor. And sometimes I get frustrated, but I really love the moments when I can find the patience to laugh with him and we pick them up together.

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