Day 22: Simple Pleasures

When the girls got up from their naps yesterday, we went outside to play in the yard. ( It's a weird phenomena that happens around here;  people all sit in their front yards and the kids all play in the front yards -instead of the backyards - and people even have BIG SCREEN tv's in their garages and have garage parties . . . but I digress)

So, while we were outside, Nitro discovered a standing puddle of water.  She looked up at me as if to say, "Can I get in this?" so I walked over, inspected to be sure there were no ants floating in it, and then gave her the go ahead signal.  She looked at me with questioning eyes, still unsure I had actually said YES to her request to play in muddy water.

But I'm working on saying YES to things that I can say yes to, instead of having this rigid world of "NO" around them all the time.  (This has included yes to sleeping in a grass hula skirt, and yes to wearing click clacks to the grocery store.)

So she sat down in her WHITE shorts  (yes, I said WHITE . . . someone, somewhere better be applauding the strength it took me to be able to say YES to this moment!) and took off her sandals, then walked back over to the puddle and tentatively put her toes in the water. It didn't take long at all before she was jumping up and down in the water puddle, making the best mud puddle you have ever seen.

Over and over and over and over she just jumped up and down.  And each time she did it, it was as though she had never done it before.  Squeals of delight mixed in with an occasional glance of "are you sure this is okay, Mom?" filled our front yard and eventually drew her sister over to see what was going on.  I laughed out loud when her sister, Shortstack, looked up at me and pointed at her sister.  I could not tell if her accusing glance was toward her sister, as if to say, "do you see what she is doing?" or if it was at me, as if to say, "What are you doing letting her play in the mud and in white shorts no less?" 

But once I told Shortstack she could play too, she took off her shoes, ran to jump in (in her white leggings!), but then chickened out, and instead she jumped over it.  And then a new game was formed.  The "jump over the puddle" game.  And for a solid 10 minutes both girls jumped over the puddle, ran around it and jumped over it again.  Of course there were some occasional "oops, I accidentally jumped into the puddle" moments as well.  Which truly were accidents for Shortstack, but no so much for Nitro!

As I watched them play I was suddenly struck with how little it takes for them to truly treasure and embrace the simple things in life.  They have a garage and house filled with toys, but all they really needed was a warm day and a mud puddle.  They truly just embrace the moments as they come.

I need to be more like that.  Just embracing the moments as they come.  Enjoying the simple pleasures that are right here in front of me, instead of looking for ways to enjoy life more.

All that to say, "God give me eyes today to see the simple pleasures, and then help me to embrace them."