Gratitude versus (Great) Expectations

We're just back to Texas, from a visit to Idaho. Too short but oh so sweet. We crammed every single day with as much family time as we possibly could. Church twice at our kids' church (so wonderful to be in their new building!). Lots of going out to eat at favorite places with favorite people. We had one big shindig with everyone over to celebrate Cub Sweetheart's birthday. Steaks on the grill, enjoying our newly constructed deck, wild ping pong games downstairs, crazy noise level, while the two little girls ran up and downstairs. So good!

We'll head back to Idaho sometime in June, and the deck will be used hard for the next five months. I'm already looking forward to catching glimpses of the fawns that are bound to be hanging around below. I've ordered hanging baskets of flowers, and have picked out two all-weather rockers for the open side of the deck, with a tower heater to keep us warm on chilly evenings. Morning coffee and wine-thirty should be glorious there. Do I sound excited? I am! Those stairs lead to the hot tub below, which our two youngest Littles call 'Grammy's swimming pool'.

We got a bit of snow several times while we were there, which was nice. Nice because I got to enjoy it for a few days and then leave it. The last few days there you could feel the arrival of spring starting to show up, just a little bit. I'm thinking this deck will be a great place to put a hummingbird feeder too.

I read a book last fall, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and she had one line that caught my attention. I was listening to Audible on a treadmill at the time, so there was no highlighting or underlining but it stuck with me. I came home and told CS about it, and several days later he came back to me and told me it had been on his mind. The author relayed how someone had told her that seeing life through eyes of gratitude, rather than expectation had had a profound effect on them. CS and I have adopted this as our mantra -to we see our health, our marriage, our children, grandchildren, family, friends, finances, etc. etc. - ultimately our lives - through eyes of gratitude rather than through expectations met or not; when we manage to do so, it changes everything. We had this sign made and it sits above our kitchen cabinets in our little Huckleberry Haven home. I've got another one on order for our Little House on the Prairie.

My oldest daughter had the idea to start a small bookclub, where we'll read only very old books and meet to discuss them. They're SO long we've got a pace of two to three months to read each one. Bleak House was our first, and we're now set to discuss Les Miserables in June, when I'm back in Idaho. My 16 year old grandson is a member, and his first comment was, "I've never been to a bookclub, what do you do?" I've read a lot of books in my lifetime, but I'm fairly certain he's passed me in his 16 years. At age 16 he's read every single Sherlock Holmes, and so many really wonderful books; at age 16 I'd read every single Nancy Drew. More notable than what he's read is his retention and understanding of the books he reads. It was such fun to listen to his comments about Bleak House, hear how much insight he had.

When I learned our first read was going to be Bleak House, that same grandson asked me if I'd already read Great Expectations, also by Dickens. I told him that I'd read a few of Dickens' books but not that one. He insisted that I start there. I read it in December, and fell in love with Pip and had such fun with Miss Havisham. Creepiest, craziest ever character! I'm glad he encouraged me to read it, and was struck at what part 'expectation' played in the plot. (Sidenote: Masterpiece Theater did a great job of producing a short series  of it if you're not up for reading 864 pages of old English. However, be sure you watch the one that stars Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham.)

Our little bookclub of three has enlarged very quickly into six, so we've closed it for now.  We have two high school students (so fun!) and perhaps when they graduate we'll open it up to more new members. I love, love, love that this reading group spans 46 years difference in age. We talked about BH, Dickens, literature and life for about an hour, with no prepared discussion questions, and had the most wonderful time. I sat there, with my daughter and grandson, and felt so grateful that life has unfolded to this. Not just loving family, but being true friends with them, and seeing it span generations.

Yes to Gratitude. No to Expectation. It's the key to so much of life, isn't it?