Try contentment on for size. Doesn't always fit so well does it? You might say "Yeah, I'm content. Duh!" but as soon as someone drives up in their brand new shiny off the showoom floor lexus, or mercedes, or what have you I know most people don't go "Ah that's just swell! I'm so happy for that person I could cry tears of joy!" no. it's more like "Man I wonder what he does. What do you think he does? My luck he probably makes whoopie cushions. that would be my luck wouldn't it? I work just as hard sa he does and what do i have to show for it? hmmm? a beat up putrid aweful green pinto! A PINTO! and this guy's drivin' around in a luxury machine cause he makes whoopie cushions." And immediately we start comparing ourselves to the individual in the luxury sedan.
this example proably sounds cheezy, and cliche, and lame because it is...but let me try to put it into perspective and let you know exactly where i'm coming from.
How content are you really? right now?
if you made a list of every thing that got you brownie points and then a list of all the things where choice words and "eye-darts" were employed or where you had to restrain yourself from hurling your body mass at another body mass for doing/saying/thinking/breathing something you didn't appreciate, which list would be longer?
i was reminded on halloween of all nights how grateful and content i should really be.
I'm a caretaker for a teenage boy with autism and a 22 year-old guy with cerebral paulsy. on halloween i took the 22 year old to his annual halloween dance. this guy is wheelchair bound; very little control over movements. he's drudgingly slow "motor skills wise" (speaking, moving arms, legs, philanges (fingers/toes)) but his thought process is considerably clear for the condition that the rest of the body is in. this guy is tatally dependent on other people.
when i took him to the dance i was greeted overwhelmingly by bright smiling kids and adults with special needs. there was not a single time when any of them at one time or another were not smiling. they could win the smiling contest if they wanted to.
but it didn't stop when i walked in the door. everysingle one of the people that were attending that dance were all smiles and perfectly content to be there. they were wholly satisfied with the way that they had been made. it was one of the most humbling and surreal experiences i've ever experienced. To be in a room full of people with disabilities and not a single one of them think of themselves as different, challenged, "special." i felt very convicted by the end of the night. it seems like i am always thinking of a way to make myself more comfortable or you could even put the word content in there, when really i have all i need. He loves me. He saved me. He's my everything. only He can satisfy and we have to be reminded of that from time to time.
the best times for that remider is when it feels like all the "WHOOPIE" was let out of your whoopie cushion.
i'll never forget the looks on the faces of all those kids at that halloween dance. pure joy and happiness and contentment.
1) NO MORE POLITICAL ADS!!!!!
2) "Strangers like me" is the best song ever!
3) numero dos is a courtesy of phil collins
4) i'm a fan of phil
5) every one needs to watch Crusoe on NBC on Friday nights at 8pm
6) leave for South Carolina tomorrow for the rest of the week/weekend
7) gonna get some Cheerwine
8) i have eaten probably 200 pounds of candy since friday
9) GOD IS SO GOOD
10)Fizz Mountain here I come! (it's in north carolina)
