Let’s Make a List

 "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, 

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens......

These are a few of my favorite things."

 

 

If you're a fan of The Sound of Music, those are familiar lyrics. Even if you're not particularly a Sound of Music fan, the lyrics are probably at least vaguely familiar.

 

These days it seems the world is just falling apart. It's hard to find any good news to talk about any more.  If we let it, all the gloom and doom that is part of our world can really drag us down.

 

Today seems like a good day for a change of focus. I don't know how things are where you are today, but here in the Upstate of South Carolina, we’re having a fair to partly cloudy day. Another warm one, with the prospect of afternoon thunder storms.  I have the usual aches and pains that come with this season of life. I could find all sorts of reasons for complaining if I really tried. And I wouldn't have to try all that hard!

 

Instead, I'm choosing to focus my attention elsewhere. To be thankful. To make a list of a "few of my favorite things."  Using the song as a starting point, here's my list:

 

• Raindrops on roses. I love roses. And hydrangeas. And gardenias. And daisies. And I love to see raindrops on those roses. It makes me happy.
• The next line of the song doesn't really make my list. I'm not a fan of kittens or their whiskers.  Kittens grow up to be cats, and I'm really more a dog person than a cat person. Whiskers on puppies. That I can get excited about!
• Bright copper kettles. I love copper pots of all shapes and sizes.
• Warm woolen mittens. Again, as with the whiskers on kittens, I'm not a fan. Mittens, yes. Woolen mittens, not so much.
• Coffee. Hot, strong, black coffee. That definitely is on my favorites list.
• Friends. Definitely thankful!
• Books. Big books. Little books. E-books. All books. I love books. I love reading. It's one of the great pleasures of my life!
• The smell of rain.
• The smell of freshly mown grass.
• A big juicy steak.
• Pimento cheese, homemade by my husband. The best there is! (The husband AND the pimento cheese!)
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Pancakes
• The beach

These are a few of my favorite things. I'm thankful for these things and for so much more. This only scratches the surface.

 

What's on your list today?

 

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful."  (Colossians 3:15 NASB)

 

 

*My Favorite Things - songwriters:  Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers