Managing to Find a Few Smiles

I am in a rather serious frame of mind today. Normally, I love to try to find things to laugh at--just the oddity of life. Today, it's been harder to find that stuff because I have a lot of rather serious stuff on my mind. I did find two things that helped me crack a smile.

1) Elijah woke up with a fever. That's not the funny part. This could mean Round 3 of the Virus Farm we've been running around here. Also not funny. He told me he has a fever because he does not like Taco Bell mild sauce. Now that's funny. The End. (Author's Note: Elijah has not eaten Taco Bell very recently. Also, there is no established correlation between hot sauce preference and fevers.)

2) We drink coffee. That's not the funny part. I find coffee stains on things, mostly clothes. That's also not funny. I did think it was funny to find where a cup of coffee had spilled in my laundry room. Who drinks coffee in the laundry room? Apparently, we do.

Winter is an interesting season. Outdoor beauty is there, but it's stark, often harsh. Even without snow, there is a severe beauty in the monochromatic shapes of the land and mountains against a blazing blue sky. (We happen to have plenty of snow at the moment, however....) I have a harder time finding the beauty to just soak up. I can't sit outside and let warm breezes wash over me. Cold, achy toes can easily distract me from standing outside gazing at the moon. It's harder to just drink in the beauty.

I guess that's what I'm thinking today. God is always working beauty through pain, even if it's hard to see. Pain is never just a pointless event that results in nothing. God can use pain and He does. It's just harder to sit and soak up all the beauty when the pain is so distracting and...well....painful. But, it's there. I've seen it this week. Glimpses.