Woohoo! It’s Garbage Eve

I like to have fun.  Mention the word ‘party’ and I’m there! (Notice I didn’t say invitation—so be careful about saying the “p” word around me.) I love to laugh. My husband makes me laugh every day—after nearly 44 years of marriage, he can still make me laugh till it hurts.  But even with all that merriment and enjoyment of merriment, I find myself getting way too serious, way too often.

Every once in a while, I have to remind myself to enjoy the small things, to take pleasure and delight in the everyday, simple things and activities of life.  After all, life is really made up of the everyday.  The spectacular, the over-the-top exciting, and parties are the occasional events of life. 

I have a wonderful friend whose mother would say with great excitement, as though it were a celebration, on the night the garbage needed to be taken out, “It’s garbage eve!”

I want to be easily amused.  I want to laugh often.

I want my heart to smile at the sight of a pretty cloud meandering across a blue sky or the brush of a soft breeze.  I want to take pleasure in a basket of clean laundry, instead of the thought of still having to put it away.  I want to savor that rich taste of that first sip of the first cup of coffee in the morning, instead of mentally ticking off the day’s to-do list while I drink.  I want to be grateful for a close-by parking spot in a rain storm, instead of being frustrated for having to be out doing things in the rain.

I want to remember that life, like recipes, for the most part is flexible. Time is a valuable asset, but stopping to just be, every now and again, is as important as doing.   

It’s easy to laugh at a funny joke, but to take delight in taking out the garbage, now that’s enjoying life in its most everyday of moments.

However, when you think about it, to move forward, you need to get rid of the garbage.  So come on and say it with me—“Woohoo!  It’s Garbage Eve!”