Rocks in my head?

Alas, it has been months since I've posted anything on this much neglected little blog.  I've been too busy living the dream to stop and write about it.  Honestly, sometimes I have to just stop and pinch myself to make sure I'm awake.  

I have been fabulously enjoying my Boise life.  My job, although keeping me VERY busy,  is going great.  I am blessed to have exactly the right mix of professional challenge and personal satisfaction.  I have a fantastic boss who I truly respect and enjoy teaming with.  I am involved in projects that excite me and keep me learning new stuff.  And I get to associate with brilliant, remarkable people who are honestly committed to making a positive difference. So work is very good right now.  Then add to that the fact that I'm married to an exceptional human being who I absolutely adore.  My faith is strong, filling me with a sense of meaning and purpose.  I'm reasonably healthy. My garden is thriving. I have a great dog.  What's not to love about a life like that??  .

Today is just an example of one of the many adventures I've had lately.  

My beloved and I took a ride out into the desert south of Bruneau Sand Dunes.  We got a permit from the BLM to go pick up rocks.  A couple weeks ago we picked up one of those plastic pre-formed pond liners when our across the street neighbors had a yard sale.  My dear sweet husband has been working hard this past week to get it all set up.  (He didn't even give me a mean look when the spot I picked for it just happened to have a major tree stump right in the middle - he just went out there in all his manliness and took out the stump.  What a great guy!)

When we got out to the spot where the rocks were my big strong man played billy goat and climbed the side of the hill to haul them over to where I was.  Then I would pick them up and take them the 100 yards or so to where the truck was parked.  Rock by rock by rock we had some great teamwork going on.

After our rock hunting adventure we decided to play a bit.  So we went hunting for a few geocache.  We found three - one at the top of a rocky hill where we could see for miles overlooking the old missile silo sites.  Next we drove over to the lake by the sand dunes  where Larry goes fishing a lot so he could show me that sweet spot.   We just sat there for a while listing to the Mourning Doves and watching the fish rise, resting from all our labor of the morning and enjoying each other's company.  BLISS.

Finally it was time to head home and lift each and every one of those rocks one more time so we could place them around the pond.  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Most of all what I like best about this new little oasis in my yard is that every time I look at it I will remember what a great day we had today and how very much I love this man who made it for me.

I am truly living happily every after.  When I think back to the angst and chaos of my life during my 20's and 30's I shake my head in wonder at how things have turned out.  Sure, I still have problems  in my current days, like anyone else.  But those bumps in the road I experience now are so completely overshadowed by a deep sense of gratitude for the incredible sense of peace and purpose that surrounds me.  Part of it is deliberate choosing to focus on what's right rather than commiserating over what isn't perfect.  But a lot of it is that I really do have stacks and stacks of amazing blessings that make it easy to swim in the currents of joy that sustain me more often than not. These days I savor every drop of this life I'm living, sometimes near giddy with delight.

I'm stacking my emotional bank account with these magic days of love and flowers.  I know that life is a complicated dance of both shadows and light, and that it is inevitable that heartache, losses, tough times will come again.  When they do, I hope I have the good sense to endure them well and get through the dark days by remembering the magic times of days like today.