Leftovers

The concept of leftovers fills me with gratitude and amazement. Imagine having a beginning meal and then taking parts of the remaining food and having another meal. This is the most effective thing in the world. It's amazing for me because until I met my wife I was a food snob. I would have a meal, put what was left over in the refrigerator, and then after time (sometimes a great deal of time!) had passed threw out the strange colored food. Sometimes in college we would have a game called "guess what it was" and none of us were brave enough to taste test.

Suddenly I started to give thanks for the food in my refrigerator and the creative things we could do. Psalms 30:11-12 states "You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." Suddenly I realized that leftovers (actual leftover food made into another meal) worked.

It seemed like such a simple process but there was excitement over the concept. We started to realize that some foods actually taste better the second or third day.

This was another concept of gratitude starting in places I never expected it to show up. It is the move from entitlement for everything I have into thanks for the simplest things in my life.

I am balancing a group of health challenges that mean my sleep occurs in 30 to 90 minute time blocks. Thus the word 'tired' has an entirely different concept for me. But in the end it is just like the leftovers. I start off with the basic definition of sleep blocks and give great thanks for any longer time frame. I even now will lie down for twenty minutes and have a wonderful nap.

These are the moments which earlier in my life might not be gratitude based; but they are now. The gratitude occurs for the simplest things and feels like learning true wisdom.

There is a base foundation in me that believes that life will be filled with roses and unicorns and goodness - no matter what shows up. It is the littlest girl in the movie 'Despicable Me.' Agnes is navie and innocent but has gratitude about everything. She gives thanks for things her sisters don't see.

So in the end look harder. It may look like a traumatic misfortune and that is the impact - but in the end there will always be a gratitude in the process. Mine shows up when I crawl into bed at night and my teddy bear and I play 'fort' under the blankets and give thanks for it all.