Perspective for 2011?

I woke up this morning.  It's true.  I did.  As did you.  I woke up this fine morning and cleaned my house, put away some laundry and pretty much wanted to gripe and complain about it all and then it hit me. (Face pop.....)  I have it all.  I mean ----  ALL!!!

I have a wonderfully annoying husband.  He does things like snore, speak in incomplete sentences that no sane person can decipher, eats too much, cusses to much, looks at other women, loves boobs in general, watches horrible movies with no plot, prays that he'll see a "spontaneous boob shot" on every TV show or commercial in which a woman is a) wearing a bra, b) bending over or c) in the shot, he drives badly, and pretty much frustrates the hell out of me by leaving his shit all over my house!  He also pays for "my" house by working his ass off.  He loves me even though I'm too fat.  He didn't leave me when I got really sick and no one could figure out what the hell the cause was.  He stood of up for me with his family, even though it cost him greatly.  He stood back and let me fall on my face with a friend who wasn't good for me, until he couldn't take it anymore and finally told me to "kick her to the curb".  (Good advice, by the way!)  He doesn't judge me when I cry at commercials,  movies, songs or anything else that might "strike a nerve".  He loves the stupid voices that I use when I'm happy.  They make him happy, too!  He keeps my secrets when no one else can.  He sets the dumb ass alarm on his phone to "remind himself" to check in with me, every day.  Every stinkin' day.  At 8:15pm.  Every single day.  He loves it when I cook "something new" and he was thrilled when I made lasagna for Christmas dinner in lieu of the traditional holiday feast.  He lets me grieve when I need to grieve.  He doesn't even mind that I sing too loudly in the car or that I dance to much to Prince.  He lets me dance, if I need to dance.  His dancing is horrible, but endearing.  I'm one of the few people that he'd dance in front of.  I'm honored.  He stood back and let me heal when I was so wounded, I wasn't sure our marriage could survive.  I think I'll keep him!

I also have a beautiful daughter who'll be turning the dreaded thirteen in a few short weeks.  GASP!  Yes.  I have a teenage daughter.  Pray for me.  She rolls her eyes at me.  She talks back to me.  Her room is a pit, most days.  She cries over nothing and yells over everything!  She hates her sister with a passion I've rarely experienced, in all my days on this Earth.  She loves to leave little pieces of paper all over the house.  These papers are covered with doodles, and drawings and short sentences that make no sense.  (She gets this from her father, clearly.)  She knows more than I do.  Just ask her.  She's hateful and mean most days.  She can't wait to get the hell out of the house, the minute she gets home from school.  She pretty much hates her life.  I always say "There's telephone, telegraph and then there's tell my daughter."  She knows EVERYTHING that goes on in Perfect.  I mean everything!   She's also the most genuine person I've ever met.  She doesn't judge people.  Ever.  I mean it, y'all.  She'll be friends with ANYONE!  She didn't care when they wore glasses in kindergarten and the other kids laughed at them.  She was their friend.  She's friends with the shy girl who no one understands and must clearly have "cooties".  She's even friends with kids from other schools, or hold on people, other STATES!  Shocking!  My daughter stands up for that same baby sister that she hates so much to the bitter end!  Don't mess with her sister, folks!  This same little girl, notices when my voice doesn't sound quite right and she knows that something is wrong, the second she gets home from school.  My little girl sees the world with wonder and amazement.  She knows that she can be anything that she puts her mind to.  She's confident to a fault, but not cocky.  Just a beautiful shade of "confident".  It shines in her like a light through the darkness that is low self esteem.  She's smart.  Too smart for her own good most days.  Alas, I'm grateful to be blessed with a child that learns things so quickly.  She's moving into a new phase of her life and that phase doesn't require my attention every second of the day.  As much as I know that this is the way that it has to be, it still hurts me.  It still scares me.  I'm terrfied that the world might take away some of these wonderful things, that are so truly, deeply her.  My little girl, is a young woman.

I'm also the mother of another little girl.  Now, this one is quite different than the first.  More like me in many ways.  More quiet and reserved than her elder sister.  So much so, that I have to bend down to have her tell me things when we're out in public.  So much so, that she won't order a coke from the waitress.  I mean, seriously----SPEAK UP!!!  She's sneaky.  She thinks that I don't know that she knocks the crap out of her sister when I'm not around.  She plays people like a violin.  She looks quite sweet and innocent.  It's a cover.   She's forgetful.  I mean REALLY forgetful.  I can tell her to be sure to take her plate the dishwasher and not 45 seconds later, she's running upstairs with that damn plate left right there where it was.  She hates to read.  Hates to do her homework.  Hates to do any work, really.  Girl is lazy. L-A-Z-Y!  She'd love to go to bed at about midnight each night, sleep until nearly noon and then stroll downstairs to eat her breakfast for forty five minutes and then play some WII.  You can imagine school day mornings are no picnic around my house.  You'd be wrong.....they're even worse than that!  But, then there's the deep kindness to her, that everyone can see.  She's a gentle soul with good intentions towards every one and every thing.  Butterflies and lady bugs just float her way, land on her and just sit there to enjoy the day.  She can sit there and watch their wings flap and their antennae sway and never speak a word.   Perfect peace on her face.  She sees the value in everything.  The value that most of us have forgotten about.  She sees the weak and weary as beautiful.  She sees the poor and hopeless as rich in spirit and potential.  My little girl honestly sees the world as a genuinely good place.  She quick with a smile and slow to criticize.  Her favorite thing to say is "Well, at least _____ didn't happen! That's good, right?"  She sees that glass as half full---all the time!  She's unintentionally funny.  She's made me laugh so hard, my sides hurt.  I can't wait to see what she'll use these gifts she's been given for, in her life.

I have a home.  A really, really nice home.  It's big and fully furnished with tons of crapola.   Every space filled with something I love.  It's overfilled really.  Another way in which I'm blessed.  We give stuff away all the time, because, well, we have TOO much!  I'm lucky to have so many clothes to wash.  I'm blessed to have so much food in my pantry that some of it won't fit!  The "dilemma" of which of those delicious things I'm going to have for dinner is never a thought for a homeless person.  They'd be happy with anything I have.  They'd be okay with doing "all that laundry" because it would mean that they had clean clothes to wear and some plate in which to was them.  The idea of wishing that my husband would "go to work already" and get the hell out of my hair, never occurs to the woman who's never been married though she desperately wants to be.  She'd gladly take my annoying husband!  Being irritated to death by my children, is only a dream to the infertile couple, praying for a pregnancy to "take root".  Wondering when my husband will get home from "working himself to death" would be welcomed by the wife whose husband has been out of work for over a year.  I'm ashamed of myself, really.

I guess, it's all a matter of perspective.  Even here in Perfect.  I guess, I just wanted you to know that.  Because......today.....I woke up.

Take a deep breath...........it's just another day in Perfect!!!!!