I have been cranky this summer. Too much heat, work, and ridiculous politics. Not enough rest, reading, and picnics. I find myself replaying yesterday’s bad mood or anticipating a snow day in some relaxing future. It is easy to get preoccupied backwards and forwards, the present seems a jam packed to-list and those people that when merging lanes, rush alongside your car and cut in when you have waited patiently in queue. Even the popcorn movies have been gloomy. I was about to chalk this summer up to a dead yard and frizzy hair when I got a hold of myself. The present is filled with moments worth considering. I just haven’t been paying attention.

Yesterday I challenged myself to notice five things, just from one day, that made me happy. I was not allowed to count the things that annoyed me. Here is my list:

1.  Queen Anne ’s lace flowers by the side of the road while driving to work. They look like floating doilies or small galaxies of stars or some weird herb gone to seed. The metaphor possibilities are endless.

2.  A random fire alarm that reduced a 2 ½ hour conference call by one whole glorious hour. 1 hour saved – 20 min of standing in the parking lot = 40 minutes of found time.

3.  Pasta smothered in more mizithra cheese and browned butter than is respectable for a woman of my age (or any age that requires a beating heart).

4.  Attending a teenage community theater production and watching this big, awkward kid that the audience dismissed as comic relief . . . completely surprise and blow their minds with his amazing voice and presence.

5.  This picture. Note the very handsome activist three signs from the right.