Lucky

I realized how lucky I am tonight. Well, I always knew I was lucky, but tonight reconfirmed my previous findings. I realized this while I was frantically cleaning the front porch light fixture. It's a long story how I got to cleaning the front porch light fixture, so I'll try to summarize it the best I can.

Basically, my friend Bob was over and he and I had spent a couple of hours trying to solve the world's problems. We didn't solve them all, but we did manage to tackle a couple of them. Well, he had just left my house, and I was craving some food. OK, truth be told, I was craving some chocolate. Before you get all huffy-healthy on me, keep in mind that within the past seven days alone, I've run 30+ miles, biked 70+ miles, and kayaked 10+ miles. I would think that would merit a nifty little chocolate treat.

My snack of choice lately has been trail mix. It's relatively healthy because of the peanuts and raisins, but come on, you eat it for the same reason that I do. The world loves M&M's. I know that most of you are thinking that I shouldn't be able to eat them in trail mix, because normally when I eat M&M's, my OCD kicks in and I have to seperate them out into their respective colors and then eat them in prime numbered groupings. For some quirky reason, when M&M's are included as a part of greater food entity (i.e. trail mix or a Dairy Queen Blizzard) I can blissfully eat them in any crazy order.

So I would love some trail mix, but I can't have any. You read that correctly. I can't have any. Now keep in mind, there's actually a bag of M&M's in my house right now... I just don't know where. It's been hidden from me in an attempt to curb my chocolate consumation... and it's driving me insane. I've been on an "M&M Safari" for hours now. I've looked everywhere, even in the basement. Well, as I was searching high and low, I kept finding little jobs to complete around the house (in an attempt to keep my mind off my choco-cravings). I had dishes to clean, cupboards to organize, lights to replace... you name it.

So by the time I had gone through nearly the entire house, finally getting to replacing the front porch light and realizing how badly the light fixture needed to be cleaned; I also realized how lucky I am to be blessed with such a great home and a great life, especially when much of the world is often in the midst of turmoil. We have so much. Much more than many, and often much more than we need.

So I gave up hunting the elusive bag of M&M's. I grabbed some grapes, and sat down to start my list. Every once in a while, I stop to make a list of all of the things for which I'm grateful. It's a very long list. I suggest you try it sometime. It makes you forget all about your problems and really appreciate what you have.

I know I usually share my various lists with you; however, I think I'll keep this one to myself. It's pretty personal. Much of it has to do with all of the overwhelmingly amazing people in my life and the unbelievable second chance I got with my health. Five years ago, I couldn't have even fathomed a week full of running, biking, and kayaking. So here I sit, counting my blessings... and counting my grapes into prime-numbered groupings, of course. I am a lucky man.

Although I'd be a whole lot luckier if I could just find those darn M&M's...