Confession of the Ideal House List
The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. Doug Larson
There are times when we wish we were in another place. In another time. We wish we had the ultimate circumstance.
Take for instance, my folks and I. Due to some circumstances about the place in which we live, my folks have been searching for another place.
They love the house where they live.
But there are some things about it that are–let’s put it this way, really inconvenient.
Cars covered in dirt. Everytime my nana would come over, she would wipe off the mantel and say,
“Where is the Endust?”
“Uh, we just dusted that before you came, Nana.”
“Really?” (swiping a finger through the dust)
That’s what you get when you are surrounded by fields and you live in the windiest region in the United States.
So my folks met with a realtor, who was beyond fantastic.
They had their list of qualifications.
But there is not a place in the area where they are wanting to live that meets most of their qualifications…
except for one.
And that is where they are living right now.
Which is rather ironic, huh?
Have they ever considered that they might actually be living in the right place? 
So often we become dissatisfied about where we are at in life.
When our ideal is really sitting right before our very eyes.
Sometimes we miss out on it because it is right beneath us, and we are looking ahead, straining in the distance to find it.
It is not that we aren’t looking hard enough. It is that we are living it and we don’t realize it.
Do you live in a “house,” like my folks, and meanwhile are writing up the list of what you really wish you had? There are many areas of our life…take for instance, relationships.
I wish he would not pick his teeth after every meal. (I believe that I would have zero tolerance for someone who did this, it so grosses me out)
He likes the fan going full blast at night. I’m not surprised then that he steals the covers, but this is really starting to get on my nerves. (get two pairs of sheets)
When I find her, she’s gonna like so-in-so on so-in-so show… (boy meets a girl) I like her, but I was hoping for someone who looked like…(yes, I know, like so-in-so on so-in-so show, and sir, you are really a hopeless case)
He always sleeps when he gets home from work…What is he doing now? What? He’s sleeping, again? (My mom’s favorite.)
Is he bugging you like crazy? Or are you expecting her to be perfect?
Nobody’s perfect. Do not put up with stupidity, but do not lust after perfection.
If you want him to be that way, or he wants you to change to suit his list of the “ideal house qualifications” because you yourself are not fine enough to suit him, then two somebodies somewhere have their sights set a little high…
more like, terribly high.
Just saying….
Somebody has created the “ideal house qualification list.”
And somebody’s “ideal house” is sleeping at their side every night.
This post should really begin with ‘Dear M.E.’ Because in some ways, I am really writing this post to myself.
My journal right now is reading the following:
(I choke a little when I read those two entries. How come it took me a day to get that smart?)
What a word to try to live, especially in today’s “fast-food, get-rich-quick, work-from-your couch, look-it-up-online” world that we live in. Self-gratification cultivated and rewarded everywhere. I’ll be the first to admit that I have been swallowed into it.
Dear M.E., in all of that, remember two things. Just two things.
Spectacular happiness isn’t real.
Contented happiness is.
It is real as the milk sitting in your refrigerator.
Or the eggs.
Or whatever you’ve got in your refrigerator.
Love,
M.E.
P.S. Is the moving van parked in my folk’s driveway? Nope. Looks like they’re stuck there for a while…more like a long time. She convinced them they didn’t need to move.
Don’t judge each day by …
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.–Robert Louis Stevenson
Count Down First
Patience is the ability to count down before you blast off.–Author Unknown
It is so hard to be patient.
You just want to get out and go. And sometimes you have to wait. Wait and be patient.
Sometimes there are things you just cannot control.
Like, for instance, the weather.
Like, for instance, deeper things than just the weather.
Sometimes you just need to sit back, take a few deep breaths, and smile.
Smile and count your blessings.
It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown–Author Unknown
That means it takes more effort to frown.
“Laughter is an instant vacation”–Milton Berle
Speaking of vacation, it looks like departure will not be till tomorrow.
Which is hard for an impatient person like me.
Which is why I just need to sit back and relax and be patient.
Ahhh, patience!
Why is it that I get impatient when I hear the word patience?
Because patience is a gem that has to be cut from the rough stone. People can accomplish things everyone else would call impossible with patience.
Only think, if Thomas Edison had not had the patience to find 9999 times that wouldn’t work, he would not have succeeded on the ten thousandth.
That would take a tremendous amount of patience.
Or if Anne Sullivan had not patiently spelled words onto Helen Keller’s hand for months, trying to communicate with her.
So many things hinge on patience. Even the simple things of life.
Waiting in line at the store does.
Driving down the road does.
Trying to work a very uncooperative computer does.
Sitting on a bus as an assistant to forty very talkative middle schoolers does.
Sitting around waiting for one more bad day of weather to clear up does.
Dear you, what things in life stretch your patience level?
That’s why we go through these things.
Because “a man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.”-George Savile
Which is what I am trying to remember now!
Which is why I am trying to count down the hours!
M.E.
Laugh on Credit
Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit.–Author Unknown
I just wanted to say I haven’t forgotten you all.
Plans, plans, plans…I had planned to start writing every other day. But as you can tell that didn’t happen. At all. It’s like my New Years Resolutions that I talked about in January.
The truth is that I’ve been fighting off a serious case of bronchitis and a double ear infection for over a week.
Still, I trudged to classes, put my head down on the desk, and hoped somehow I could absorb the information.
I never realized I should be so thankful for these two ears that I was given to hear with…
until I couldn’t hear the exciting sounds of music like I used to.
For a musician, that’s pretty scary.
It’s been the kindness of those around me that has been so encouraging.
No matter where I go…there’s always someone to make sure I’m alright, to give me a smile…
Are you feeling better?
Yes, of course. (That’s me, trying to sound convincing)
Are you sure? (That’s someone who doesn’t believe me.)
Or how about this one that happened the day before.
Are you any better?
Yes, I’m better. (croaking like a bullfrog while I’m talking, a look of doubt being flashed at me)
She doesn’t sound like it. (That’s someone standing by who knows not to believe me.)
I AM feeling better. (after that, I GIVE UP trying to be convincing. No one believes me.)
And to the wonderful, good-natured classmate who always has something to laugh about, and actually got me to laugh the day I didn’t feel like laughing.
Kudos to you! Laughter is potent medicine. After all, scientists agree it is therapeutic.
So today, even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit.
And “if you don’t have a smile, I’ll give you one of mine.”
I really am starting to feel better.
Oh I’m looking forward to spring break.
Spring break in two weeks…which means a vacation. At this point, there’s nothing that sounds more exciting! Maybe you would like to see some pictures of the places I like to go, the things I like to do…
Or maybe that doesn’t sound very interesting.
Or maybe I better quit rambling on in case I say something less than classy while on amoxicillin.
Love to all of you,
M.E. 
Meet M.E.
I write for YOU. Whoever you may be, I hope you will always be encouraged. I hope you will believe in yourself, that you are the most amazing person in the world, because you are you!
Things that inspire me: sunshine in a blue sky, the rainbow soaring over the storm, the firefighter, policeman, and paramedic, and the person who tries and tries and tries…and still tries again.
You will find out I have a vivid imagination. Laughing is therapy. Everything’s bigger in my home state. My grandmother was born in Gohrgah. I like it classy. I square dance with Hillbillies, and canoe deep in the Ozarks. I admire those who stand strong for what is right. I want to ride in the rodeo. (Unfortunately I don’t own a horse. Otherwise I might try!) Enough about me, now on to You!
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