Kawai Joy

I play the piano.  I love to play the piano.  It is a stress reliever as well as a soothing activity when I'm all keyed up.  *ha ha*  My mom taught me my first song (I still have it memorized) when I was four years old....

I've played on a variety of pianos over the years.  When I lived in Germany, I even played on a Steinway.

BUT

My favorite piano (brand) of all time is Kawai.  My piano teacher bought a Kawai grand when I was taking lessons and I played on them in choir concerts when I was in school.  I play on an upright every week, actually, at church.  Kawais are the piano of choice for the LDS Church.  :)

One of my life long fantasies is to own a Kawai baby grand.  It brings me great joy to play on one...

Fortunately, I have that opportunity often because I play the baby grand in our chapel during services.  I was able to do so last week while my son was playing basketball in the gym.  I sneaked into the chapel and played my favorite hymns out of the hymnbook for about 45 minutes.

Pure.

Unadulterated.

JOY.

Looking for Joy

Wow.  I have been terrible the last two years in searching for gratitude in this blog.  Shame, shame, shame!  *wry chuckle*  Ah, well...  Can't look to the past, must look to the future.  Right?

I'm actually going to take this particular blog in a new direction with the new year.  I struggle with finding things to be grateful for (especially after the 19th surgery in 12 1/2 years with more in the future).  In fact, I don't know if it's the time of year or because of this latest surgery, but I've found myself dealing with fighting my demons again.  Now I don't mean actual demons ...  Anyway...  I mean dealing with my demons of deep depression and feelings of abandonment.  The week before Christmas was particularly bad, in part, because I was stuck elevating my scoped knee and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  On one of those days, I was dwelling on how I always seem to feel like there is nothing but sadness or anger in my life when a small phrase from my Patriarchal Blessing popped into my head.  It was a simple three word phrase that is repeated time and again in my Blessing:  "joy and happiness."  I also had the thought that surely in my *cough cough* 40 years of life, there had to be moments of joy so I started brainstorming for weeks, days, hours, moments, minutes, seconds of joy in my life.

Surprise, surprise.  I found that there were/are moments of joy in my life! So to make a long story short, I've decided that rather than focusing on gratitude, at least for a while, I'm going to focus on JOY.  Who, what, where, when, and why has brought me JOY.

Sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.  Most of all, thanks for reading.

Starting off 2010

It's been almost a years since I posted on my Gratitude Blog. Shame on me! What can I find to be grateful for today?

1. A knee that's fixed--for now--and a doctor who listens to me.
2. My puddy tats
3. Ending 18/3/8 with a smile and some hugs that were well worth the wait.
   

I'm Lacking

*groan*

What am I grateful for today?

1. Living
2. Sunshine
3. my electric blanket
   

Gratitude for Healing

I know it's been an awfully long time since I shared gratitude.

I tore my ACL back in September and had surgery 10 days later to repair it along with some other repairs that I knew needed to be done.

So today I'm thinking about my surgery and how far I've come...

I'm thankful

1. I have two legs and feet
2. For good insurance coverage *wry grin*
   
3. I can walk almost normally
   

Gratitude for My Husband

I know it's been a very long while since I've posted here.  I guess I've kind of been in a funk.  But I'm thankful today for my husband.

• His incredible compassion
  
• His willingness to even try to, let alone actually understand me
• His patience in dealing with such a high-maintenance wife
  

A Better Job

I need to do a better job of gratitude--it's been more than two months since my last entry!

I'm thankful for

1. Springtime
2. Sunshine
3. My best friend