Dear Reader:

O frabjous day!    (Yes, one of my little known talents is an ability to recite the "Jabberwocky" from memory at will (Thanks, Dad.).  This and my arcane knowledge of 80's and 90's movie plot lines - even ones I haven't seen - will certainly come in handy some day at a job interview, right?)  

It really was a frabjous day, folks.   Those borogroves were ALL mimsy.  There was a lot of gyre-ing and gimble-ing today.    All right,  I'll stop.    I'm not one to dwell on frumious bandersnatches, after all.   No, really, I will stop now.   I mean, I totally will not stand here in uffish thought.   Sigh.   I just can't help myself, dear reader.

So, why was this day so frabjous, you ask (trying to divert my attention from these ridiculous utterances)?   Well, let me tell you.   There are four main reasons.   Are you ready?   You know I love lists, right?     OK, here goes:

1)

I mean, come on.   I was just sitting in my camp chair at the soccer practice field, minding my own business and this sweet sky just decided to sweep overhead.   How on earth can we not think of the world as a remarkable, remarkable place when any random Monday we can look up and see this?   How on earth?   (Ha, get it?  On earth?   Looking at the sky?   Dear reader, what is wrong with me tonight?   Please smack me if I start punning.  This is dangerous territory. :)).   Anyway - Le ciel est si beau ce soir, n'est-ce pas?

2)  A very attractive gentleman was getting his drink at Starbucks in Target (where I bought the most excellent dress on the clearance rack, by the way.  It is a wrap dress and the epitome of October and pumpkins and cider and all things autumn.  And, only $15! I shall wear it with my knee high boots...) when I was getting my kiddos a bit of a snack before heading home.    I noticed that he kept looking over at us and smiling.   Anyway, my kids did something charming, as they usually do, and he came over in a very Jane Austen (I'm thinking more George Knightley than Fitzwilliam Darcy) kind of way and said - "Excuse me,  I have to tell you that you have the loveliest family."   Something about the way he said it and smiled at me as though I had done something worthy of a Nobel prize just made me feel ever so good.   I mean, I totally blushed.  

3)  This evening, at soccer practice, I witnessed a beautiful moment.  The assistant coach (the two coaches for my kids' soccer team are the best guys around.   Just so great!) was working with a developmentally disabled kid who had come to try out the soccer experience that evening.   She was sweet little girl with quite a good kick.   In the scrimmage, she had a red jersey on and kept asking why she was red and the assistant coach just got down on one knee and threw out his arms and said - 

"It's because you look SO BEAUTIFUL in red!"    There was just something so genuine and sweet and enthusiastic about that response that I almost immediately teared up.   Good people in the world, y'all.  Good people.   :)   

4)  Last, but not least.....Today was my monthly housecleaning.   Ah, the satisfying sight of little shoes all lined up by the door.  The smell of fresh apple scented counter cleaner.   Things tucked away. Floors vacuumed.   Mantels dusted.   I cannot describe the intense feeling of comfort and joy I experience on this day every month.   It is not a small thing to clean someone's house for them.  NOT A SMALL THING.   

I have been feeling a pervasive sense of worthiness lately.   I don't know whether it is the meditation or the acceptance (as opposed to fighting) of emotional ups and downs in my daily life, but I currently feel like my struggles with depression and anxiety (still there, folks, still there) are not me.   They are a part of my experience, but they are not me.   I feel like my core and center is somehow separate and inherently full of good things.   It doesn't surprise me that Jane Austen-esque strangers are giving me compliments.   I mean, why wouldn't they?    Don't worry, dear reader, I am in no danger of becoming too self-satisfied or complacent or arrogant.  That is not the way my neuroses lie....   :)

It's time to put this Labor Day post into the presses.    Have a lovely week, dear reader.

Thanks for reading!