One Thousand Gifts: A Bucket of Rocks

 

#122: A Bucket of Rocks

 

 

One of my kids favorite things to do this summer is collect rocks. Lots of them. Fiona picks up tiny stones in parking lots and Parker weighs down my purse with his treasures.

But this week we have been “beaching it” at Lake Michigan, which has sent our rock collecting into overdrive. The kids have been digging them out of the sand, and the grownups were tasked with grabbing them out of the shallows. I spent a good chunk of time over the last several days standing knee deep in the lake, peering through the rolling waves, and snatching out anything that looked interesting.

As I raked my fingers through the silt, my mind wandered to the gift counting I have been doing lately. I started it on a whim, even before I read Ann Voskamp’s book, but it has turned into a journey towards finding long-lasting joy. Every time that I find myself wound as tight as a spring or worried about impossible situations, I turn my mind towards the gifts I find in every moment and every day, and it gives me instant perspective.

Rock after rock, the kids buckets were filled, and gift after gift, my life is being filled. Sometimes they are the teeniest pebble, like Fiona wearing six barrettes at a time, and other times they are a boulder, like Parker’s prayer a few weeks ago. Some gifts are buried deep like the rocks you bump into when you work your toes deep into the bottom of the lake, like the gift of serenity during a difficult transition. Other gifts you pull out after the waves of life have worn them shiny and smooth, like the gift of a loving family.

If I stood on that beach for a hundred years, I could never pull all of the rocks out of the water. If I counted gifts for a hundred years, I would never run out of things to be thankful for. It is a comforting thought that the waves of life keep washing up more and more gifts for me to discover…in every frustrating night, in every sunny morning, in every second.

It has also inspired me to take my friend Maggie’s advice on creating some Ebenezer Stones, which she wrote about recently on MomColoredGlasses. She writes,

“I remember telling my husband about the idea of giving people we loved and were walking through life with an Ebenezer Stone when they experienced a blessing and something to be so thankful for… I have this vision of a big, beautiful jar in my house just filled with these stones…..I want them to all look different, be various sizes, and to all tell a story of a blessing that we’ve been given.”

Totally tracks with my thoughts on the beach…

A few more gifts from the week…

#123: Long runs down the pier

#124: Sun-ripened blueberries munched right off the bush

#125: Afternoon art projects

#126: Floating on the waves with Madi

#127: Parker watching his reflection in the big-screen television while he danced

#128: The crunch of freshly picked corn

#129: Carousel rides

#130: Sandy feet…and sandy bottoms…

#131: Quality time with my family

#132: Giggling about old pictures…and new photo shoots…

#133: Neighborhood concerts and dancing to Twist and Shout in the backyard

#134: Seeing memories made before my eyes

#135: Scrabble on the beach

#136: Slightly sandy peanut butter & jelly sandwiches

#137: Watching a storm rush in over the water

#138: Hopscotch

#139: New Flip-flops

#140: Chocolate Covered Gummi Bears

#141: Getting spoiled by my parents

#142: Sleeping in my own bed…going away always makes our bed seem better than it is…:)