Constants in the Sea of Life

Have you ever been at the beach, enjoying your time in the water, and suddenly you're knocked down by one wave and have more crashing upon your head one after another? You try to get to the surface and just as you take a gasping breath, another wave pummels your head under water. Crash! It's a scary feeling.

Have you also ever been there and suddenly felt the pull of a rip current? You feel kind of helpless.

The shore is your constant in both cases - the first you just want to get back on it and the second you must get it in your sights and swim parallel to it until you're out of the current. You can't fight the current. You can't swim against it. You must lock your eyes on that constant and stay parallel to it.

That's been me this week. I've had one of those weeks where one life wave after another has come crashing upon my head, leaving me feeling weak enough to not pay attention and feel the pull of life's rip current. Not the best scenario for someone who's trying to recover from such a seemingly forever illness.

After I've taken care of the necessities in our lives each day (of course that includes food!), I haven't had much energy left.

The constants in my life have kept me afloat this week: My family, good friends, my dogs, the birds at our feeders. The mountains I see in my windows. God has placed these constants in my life and I am so grateful.

You see, even though I've been too fatigued to even edit or resize photos, I've still been trying to take photos of beauty surrounding me each day. I've also been writing in my grateful journal. (What's that, you say? A grateful journal - a small book I just last week started recording things I'm grateful for each day. The idea was inspired by Laureen over at Fox in the Kitchen. Thank you, Laureen!)

Being thankful for beauty around me and the constants in my life has really helped me stay on the surface this week. We live on the base of one mountain, so I see the top of it from one side of the house and the view above from the other side of the house. This is what they look like in the morning.

I love having these constants - there's some security in that. No matter how many things are swirling around me, I can look up and see some things standing strong, or going about life as normal. It's a reminder that "this too shall pass." Sometimes life sucks (or sucks the life from you!) but you move on. Things do get better, or you at least eventually learn to cope with the circumstances handed to you.

Chin up and enjoy the beauty surrounding you this weekend!

Why I'm sharing this: http://mamameglutenfree.blogspot.com/2012/02/beauty-in-eye-of-beholder.html