‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
’tis the gift come down where we ought to be
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
’twill be in the valley of love and delight
Simple Gifts, Traditional Shaker Hymn
It’s been a grumpy start to the day. The cat started complaining outside my bedroom door just before six, looking for breakfast (Normally, I’m up before the yowling starts, but I stayed up late reading and hoped to sleep past the usual time). My husband said he’d feed the cats, but didn’t get up fast enough to do so before the noise had me fully awake, with sleep no longer an option.
Once up and in the kitchen, I found no clean cat bowls – no one ran the dishwasher last night. The cat continued complaining through the extra few minutes it took to get the cat bowls clean. Food down, yowling ceased. I stomped back into the bedroom, grabbed my computer and glasses, then shut the door behind me loud enough for my husband to hear it. I grumped my way through emails while my husband got up and ready for work. Short on sleep and patience, I was none too gracious when he left.
Was there anything so different when I got up this morning than most other mornings? Only that I got up on the wrong side of the bed instead of the right one. I woke up in a house I love, where I’ve lived and loved fully and well. It’s never been perfect, it isn’t perfect now, and it won’t be perfect in the years to come. But it’s been just right for living an interesting life, for fostering the life of those I love through whatever the years brought. A complaining cat and a too slow spousal response was all it took for me discount this place that has been not perfect, but just right.
It’s only 8:15am, and I have options: I can continue to grump my way through the day, finding all the things that are imperfect or undone here and now or I can settle into the rightness of this life, this moment. I can keep throwing my little tantrum or laugh about it and let it go…
[Honestly, who can listen to Simple Gifts and still complain?]