huge little blessings

Getting my teeth cleaned, checked for cavities, and cleared for another 6 months sans drilling-n-filling.

Watching my 4-year-old pixy Pearl get her teeth cleaned, sporting shades to block the hygienist’s light, and rinsing like a big girl.

Coming home moments before the Sears truck arrived to deliver our new clothes dryer. Hanging wet clothes in a dim basement for one week in the bleak midwinter was enough to inspire sincere appreciation even for this energy-inefficient appliance.

Baking the season’s last batch of anise-flavored sugar cookies…to test the fortitude of our strong teeth?

Meeting with my midwife for the first time in 4 years—and hearing the steady thumping of a tiny heart, 160 beats per minute. Momentous.

It is not days or years I seek from you,
not infinity and enormity,
but small things and moments of awareness,
awareness that you are in what I am
and in what I have been indifferent to.

It is not new time I seek,
but new eyes,
a new heart,
and you, always you.

O Patient God,
make something new in me,
in this year,
for you, for others,
for the abundance of this life lived in your presence.

—From A Prayer for the New Year: I Hold Up My Life to You Now

By Rev. Ted Loder (http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/)