To live more contentedly

I should simply let things be,

So my Christmas gifts to me

Are permissions, entirely free:

To live and let live;

To have no expectations;

To sit on my front porch, sip lemonade and greet passers-by;

To ponder poetry;

To make a dandelion tiara;

To do a secret kindness;

To watch ants at work;

To consider the strength of the tree that can bend with the wind; 

To breathe deeply, feeling the expansion of my rib cage;

To take time for a long walk with someone lonely;

To trace the symmetry of the veins in a leaf;

To sleep until noon;

To thank another just for being;

To arrange a bouquet of wildflowers;

To soak in a bubble bath;

To follow the urgings of my inner voice without questioning;

To be still enough to hear my own heartbeat;

To laugh off an embarrassment;

To let it go to waste so it cannot go to waist;

To give away every tomato from my garden without canning one;

To play ABBA music — loud;

To identify birds by their songs;

To disco barefoot in the living room;

To be satisfied with what is;

To let a puppy lick my nose;

To wrap myself in a heated blanket;

To say “I love you” without shame to someone who won’t say it back;

To sample the sweet nectar in a clover blossom;

To smell fresh-mown grass;

To giggle with my granddaughters;

To trust that my life is proceeding according to plan;

To forgive myself too;

To paint my toenails;

To have no regrets about my yesterdays;

To have no fears about my tomorrows;

To rejoice in the knowledge that I am younger at this moment than I will ever be again.

Merry Christmas to all who have thanked me for my “Gray Matter” musings and amusings. 

When it is time to make up your gift lists, please remember yourselves.

by Barb Shave