Small Success Thursday

It’s the second week of January. My Wii Fit has already begun making sarcastic remarks. It’s not wrong, but I do talk back and the machine never seems bothered by my withering comebacks as much as I am by its “Oh…it’s you.”

It’s the second week of January, and the temperature is smaller than my toddler’s age. It’s evil cold. Vile cold. We hates it Baggins-Gollum type cold. The only place it’s not this obnoxiously cold? Mars. So I’d have to go 33.9 million miles to be warmer, and that’s if I timed it for when the two planets’ orbits are at their closest. (The last time was in 2003). But, if I walked that far, the Wii Fit board would probably break out in song at the mere mention of my name.

It’s the second week of January, so writing this week’s Small Successes was itself an act of the will in obedience with my writer’s pledge not to miss a week. While I typed, the sun found my window. It made me stop to notice the absolute warmth of my fingers. It was a small calorie-free, unasked-for gift, but I loved it. I'd told God I needed some serious sunshine, enough to feel toasty, summer toasty, today. Ask...you shall receive.

We need to hold onto the warmness of the sun in the window during a month when otherwise, we might see nothing but cold and our hearts might darken. Small success is noticing the sunbeam and letting your hands rest in the heat, recognizing how much we need light, real light in our daily lives, both physical and spiritual.

With the new year, I'd had trouble restarting the daily rosary until I found a site, Come Pray the Rosary, which helps me to really focus. It also shows pictures of the Holy Land, and that grounds the experience of saying these prayers and meditating on the mysteries in the physical reality of where they took place.

For me, saying the rosary is the emotional and spiritual equivalent of noticing a sunbeam on a day when the wind chill takes us into negative numbers. It hasn’t just warmed with its beauty, it has illuminated, healed, and revealed itself to be necessary for feeling really alive.

My small successes for this week include:

1) Filling out the CSS and FASSA forms for college that required a responsible adult. Bleah.

2) Practicing what I preach – I played the piano for 15 minutes today. Working on doing it daily as an example. In fact, the 15 minutes is a system I’m using to make sure I do five things each day that help me try to keep my resolutions, though I’ve not quite added exercise yet. 15 minutes reading, 15 minutes praying the rosary, 15 minutes practicing the piano, and 15 minutes of exercise. I don’t feel badly, because three out of four ain’t bad.

3) Conferenced to address my son Paul’s language development. As we are implementing more signing in his daily routine, it is revealing how used to his not talking we all have become. Every time he uses signs or words, we feel pleased, surprised, and delighted. Of course now I have a few smarties who want to sign, “Can we have pizza?” and think if they get Paul to sign it, it’s the equivalent of a binding kid/parent contract.

Now, it’s your turn. I’m going to let my hands stay here in the sunbeam a bit longer, and maybe I’ll do another round of the rosary while I sit.

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Copyright 2014 Sherry Antonetti