Tripping Over Goodness

I’ve been busy. During the past three weeks, I’ve been getting back into the swing of “normal life” after our three-week family vacation to Thailand, while simultaneously getting geared up for back-to-back business travel to Sacramento and then Montreal. Meanwhile, we’ve had family in town, spring fever, and the first stuffy noses (Casey and then me) of the year!

But here I am, snug in the arms of the Boucherville, QC Comfort Inn, taking the time (despite my exhaustion) to reflect on the past few days. I’m awed and amazed at the goodness I seem to be tripping over right and left!  

1. The windfall actually began back in January. Holidays over and I started to daydream about getting back home to see my family sooner than later. We didn’t visit them for the holidays, and I was feeling the pull to spend some time there. But funds are tight and vacation time is slim (due to previously mentioned three-week trip), so I didn’t have a lot of hope this would happen. And then the opportunity materialized. A work project would bring me to Canada in March – a trip that would bring me within a puddle jump from my hometown, on the weekend of my dad’s 60th birthday. And if that wasn’t good enough, the ticket was actually cheaper with the boondoggle than if I were to purchase a direct route. If that is not a gift from the Universe, I don’t know what it is.
2. Red-eye flight to Chicago. First-class upgrade goes through and I am a lucky girl. I sink into my seat, say a quick hello to the guy next me and settle in for a three-hour nap. I’m hardly ever a plane-talker, but somehow, before I knew it, I was deep in a conversation with my neighbor – a writer, root canal specialist, and cave diver, who first advised me on my current dental situation and then ended up sharing his perspectives on family, marriage, parenting and living life without fear. Sounds crazy, but this conversation was just one more example of being in the right place at the right time to hear things you really need to hear. Thank you Richard the Endodontist.
3. Not all my goodness has been strictly for the soul. Some has been completely material, and I am thankful just the same. I left for this trip and didn’t bring a wrist watch. I felt like I needed one. I went out and bought one (a cheap-o to get me through, not wanting to spend much, and in my heart really wanting a “nice” watch that I can’t justify buying myself). At dinner last night, my grandma pulled me aside and gave me a watch – a lovely, elegant watch that is just exactly the one I would have chosen had I been in the place to splurge for myself. Once again, the stars lined up and delivered.
4. Yes. There is one more. Flight to Montreal. Decided to not request the upgrade to First (saving my upgrade points for the longer flight home on Wednesday), but then the flight was full and I got bumped up to First anyway. A minor lucky break, but if we’re counting up goodness, might as well count it all.

This is really just the short list. I have been noticing a lot of goodness these days. And for good reason – I’ve been looking for it. It’s easy to see scarcity and fear. And easy to focus on what is lacking, rather than what is abundant. But I have been consciously looking for the abundance – the beauty, the goodness, the kind words, the wisdom offered up by ministers and parents and cave-diving endodontists.

Tuning in to the goodness tunes out the fear-based thinking that keeps me from living a joyful life. It takes some effort, but when I expect the goodness to come, it comes. And the more I notice it, the more there is to see.

Optimism. It brings forth the good.