Small Success Thursday

Welcome back to another week of Small Success Thursday. 

Today we celebrate the little things we did with great love, the battles back over minutia in our lives and the victories of those times when we made progress, when we started back up on things we've abandoned, when we surrendered to the love and chaos of our lives, and when we've managed to do something that added beauty, comfort and ease for those we love most. 

If you would like to join in, just use the Mr. Linky form below and post a few things from the past week that showcase your small successes.  Be sure and visit the other blogs that participate and leave comments; it is very heartening to read their stories and it's part of the fun.

This week:

1) I'm down five pounds from my heaviest point --the threshold at which I bought the Wii fit.  Unfortunately, the Wii has now decided it's tired.  Taking it to be checked out today so I can have it working again.  Telling myself it's no excuse not to work out.  We'll see if I'm as good a motivator as the machine.

2) Submitted two pieces to two newspapers; still waiting for a response from either.  Writing is hard because past performance does not promise future results and this year has been mostly dry.  It's frustrating because each piece you write, you care about and so when they get rejected or ignored, it gets harder to send out the next piece.  Fortunately, I'm very bull headed. 

As a kid, I tried out for sports.  I stink at sports. Can't run. Can't catch. Can't hit. Can't run. Can't jump. Can't dribble. Can't Run. Can't shoot. Can't score.  And did I mention, can't run?  But I wanted to be on a sports team.  Somehow my brain said, if I keep banging against this brick wall, the wall will come down.  Never once did I say, if I keep banging on this brick wall, I'll get a very big head ache.  For four years I tried out for everything except track.  In my 8th grade year, I made the track team by trying out for the one event no one else wanted to do....cross country.  So I'm repeating my youth with every submission.

3)  I know everyone is busy and probably more than a bit stressed and distressed by the state of the world: Riots in London, the Dow's seesaw ride, the unemployment rate, the low expectations and even lower standards of politics, the cost of gas, food, everything.

I also know when I listen to the news too much, I get agitated, because it is sin after sin after sin; a whole anti-litany of the hours if you will, and much of it is by people who have no master save appetites, a celebration of all the wrongness and injury and suffering and want all balled up into one big deadening unhealthy feast for the heart.  It's easy to fall into a state that I call "Vigilant sloth," searching for news, gobbling snatches of stories as they post, always looking "for something good." The something good isn't actually even usually good news, but just a hankering for something interesting, something new.

So yesterday, I took off from the news and the computer --which is where I habitually get a lot of my news --reading the papers online.  It was not a choice to be wilfully ignorant; it was a choice to be wilfully present to the people here. 

4) Getting ready for school.  Two math books finished, three to go.  Now it's project time.  Yesterday, I put the timer on and told everyone to work for an hour.  They did.  Everyone felt awesome about it; and  I celebrated their victory over the desire to do nothing with tacos.  Dinner was fun and they survived (although two swore they wouldn't) an hour of math and reading...the horror. 

5) Today is our 21st wedding anniversary.   It's hard not to tear up and it's flown by up to this point, breathtakingly fast.  Can't wait to see what the rest of our life together brings.  Also, for once, I'm organized and thought ahead.  (It's taken me 21 years to recognize, I'm generally an impulsive last minute gift giver, so having acquired it early is a big thing for me).  Happy Anniversary!

Now it's your turn!