Today was a wonderful day:

• The dog woke me up at 6:30
• I made coffee, ran out to get some donuts for breakfast, and had breakfast on the porch.
• I unclogged the vacuum and washed out the filter.  No wonder it wasn’t working, it had a warren of dust bunnies and a very clogged filter!
• I got up on a ladder and unclogged the matted leaves from the porch gutter and drainpipe.
• I cut up the remainder of the watermelon from the fridge, processed it and put it through a sieve and and made watermelon ice.
• I made dinner of a fine aged steak and a salad with lettuce from the garden.
• I finished off the last piece of chocolate cake.
• I cleaned the kitchen to stop it from looking like it exploded with the watermelon and dinner dishes.
• I went for a walk and got some Ingress in.
• I got to see the fireflies sparkling like mad in our back yard.
• I bought a new book.  (Cassandra Clare’s City of Heavenly Fire, in case you’re interested)

There’s nothing particularly amazing about my day, really.  Nothing to make it stand out as special, or wonderful.  It was a day.  But it was a wonderful day because I chose to see it that way.

For example:

• I could have seen the dog getting me up early on a Saturday as an intrusion.  Though I do admit I hit “snooze” by saying “not time yet!” the first time she jingled by my ear.
• I could have seen the dusty job of vacuum fixing and the icky gutter cleaning as a chore.
• I could have just ignored the watermelon since the day was gorgeous and I would rather be outside.
• I could have gotten stuck on the fact that the steak was a bit overdone, that I had to wash each leaf of lettuce separately to make sure there weren’t bugs and get rid of the less appetizing leaves, and that I had to run out to the store in the middle of cooking because I forgot I had not cucumber or tomatoes, and that the last piece of cake I was trying to get out of the fridge was too big for me to eat, but I tossed half of it to get rid of it and because nobody was really forcing me to eat all of it.
• I could have treated cleaning the kitchen as a chore, instead of as a blessing for my house and my family and myself.
• I could have seen taking a walk for exercise (I made 6600 steps today on my fitbit!) as a negative.
• I could have just sat and watched TV instead of fireflies.
• I could have seen writing a blog post as another chore or distraction from my new book.

Perspective is key.  If you see the world as beautiful and just and wonderful, then it is.  If you get bogged down in the negatives, that is all you will see.  You may think I’m oversimplifying, but really, I’m not.  And I prove this to myself again and again, because I’m not perfect and I lose sight of it too.

I hope you have a wonderful day.