Two For Tuesday

“Prayers go up and blessings come down.” ~Yiddish proverb

I’m not religious, but I do believe in blessings, those positive results even when I wasn’t actively looking for them. They happen all the time, and in every place. Some of them have been with me my entire life, and others I discover and marvel at on a daily basis. What I love most about blessings is that they’re personal. They don’t have to affect everyone, but they definitely affect me, which makes them special. And which makes me grateful.

On Tuesdays I will be talking about two of those blessings that make me grateful, whether they be the ones I’ve appreciated forever, or the ones that have just appeared. I want you to think about your blessings too. It feels good to voice them because sometimes we don’t really know they’re there until we give name to them. Here are my two for this week…

1. I’m grateful for competition. I may be a sore loser, but I’m less of a sore loser these days because the people I play against are gracious winners, and even gracious losers. It helps me to lose with more grace myself instead of becoming a seething beast with tears and accusations. Yeah, that guy wasn’t very good to be around, which is why I’m sure others didn’t want to play games with me for a while. Now I appreciate the joy of the battle, win or lose. Most times. Sometimes I still get upset, but I am able to temper it more easily than before. It’s a start.

2. I’m grateful for time with my children. In the afternoons I’m the one who gets the girls off the school bus, and every day we spend at least two hours together, just daddy and daughters. We’ve developed a routine that we follow, and just seeing their little faces light up when they see me is beyond amazing. I love it when Alexa is doing her homework and she asks me a question, then we work it through together. I’m worried about the time when I won’t have the answer, but at least we will figure that out together too when the time comes. Then I work with Madeline on writing her name and matching numbers, words, and pictures. Just being able to understand her more is incredible to me. That time every day is precious to me, more precious than words.

Sam