this is nice, isn’t it?

I came home from running errands in the rain yesterday, my umbrella abused to within an inch of its cheap life, its ribs cracked wide open and joints snapped by November’s wrath, droplets dripping from my grocery bags, and when I walked up the stairs, I saw that my husband had lit the first fire of the season. Is there anything better than coming home to a fire when it’s pissing it with rain outside? Billie Holiday was playing on the turntable and I turned the lights down low and then sat on the couch with Wren, both of us completely transfixed by the flames, while Joe marinated ribs for dinner, and I just looked over at him and said, “This is nice, isn’t it?”

A perfectly ordinary moment. Nothing exceptional, no bells, no whistles, no thrills, no trimmings. Just us. Our little family of three at home, warm, out of the rain, doing ordinary things.

We really don’t say it enough do we? This is nice, isn’t it?

Sure, I could focus on the fact that my daughter shit herself at 2:30am and she then somehow managed to pee all over the bed in that split second between my husband removing the dirty nappy and putting a clean one on. And how there is a pile of laundry the size of Everest in the corner of our bedroom and a knot the size of Jupiter in my back, and since giving birth, I’ve shed more hair than a Pomeranian in July. But there are far nicer things to focus on: Sunday morning pancakes, coffee in the park, a Skype date with my sister, those ribs smoking in the smoker, clean sheets, popcorn.

So for the next month, my goal is to say, “This is nice, isn’t it?“ to myself or anyone else willing to listen, out loud, at least once a day. Right down to this very moment, this quiet before Wren wakes, this opportunity to be creative, even if only for 10 minutes.

“For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his [or her] happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.”– Andy Rooney