On the way to the second floor of my house on Saturday, I sat down on the stairs. Exhausted from three straight months of all-things-relocation, I opened Instagram.
Twenty doomscrolling minutes later, I wasn’t refreshed by viewing pretty things, nor did I have even one stress-relieving laugh.
Instead, I stared at the falsities created to make me believe – even briefly – that the 2” x 2” ideal square of living space and gourmet meals illuminating from my phone screen somehow carry throughout the creator’s entire house, relationships, office life.
Briefly indulging the imagery because I was sleep-deprived and surrendered to doomscrolling, I shrunk for a moment.
Whether online or off, the Instagram version of life is enticing: Out there is better. The grass is greener. If we’re wise, we know the grass just needs to be watered. “Out there” is right here: in our homes, at work, during conversations. Time. Attention. Presence. Effort.
Even when it’s hard.
And let’s face it, most of this earthly walk isn’t easy. Some of my grumbles are decidedly self-imposed. Others are levied upon me and there’s no getting out of them. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Making my way back upstairs, I resolved to cleanse my mind and spirit by intentionally thinking about the everyday, not-small, extraordinary blessings, people, and happenings – rarely presented on social media. A quick dozen came to mind:
1. Waking up in the morning.
2. Attentive listeners. One person (more if you’re lucky) in your circle not reaching every time a notification lights up.
3. Overcomers.
4. Rockets. Over 100 launches a year, flying above the atmosphere line into blackness.
5. Jesus handing me an eternal gift of forever life in an unfathomably perfect, unimaginably peaceful, joy-filled place, free from the worries that plague me today.
6. Tiny seeds growing into giant plants and produce.
7. Safety. Sharing society with wicked people on our trains, planes and streets… safety isn’t a small thing.
8. Provision. Particularly for us Americans, we are among the wealthiest globally.
9. Mountains. The Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Everest in Nepal, to name two.
10. Life growing inside of a woman. The 9-month in utero timeline divinely ordained.
11. Planes lifting 150,000-200,000 average pounds of steel, miles of wires, heating/cooling systems 40,000 feet in the air, some 44,000 flights a day-those are merely in American skies. Flying in the clouds? Breathtaking.
12. The moon’s gravity affecting ocean tides. Extraordinary.
May we marvel in awe, at all of this and more.
Thank you for sharing your time with me on this Monday. Have a wonderful week ahead!
Images: Artemis by NASA. All others mine: family5power.com
Tales from a Mid-Lifer 
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