With so much......

bad news and loss going on in the world, the news and every day life, it's hard to even turn on the television sometimes.

In the last 2 days here, there have been 2 accidents where a 12 yr old and a 7 yr old have died. There's a blog that I read, and the blogger's cousin passed away from a brain tumor. Another blog I read recently lost her daughter very unexpectedly. Several stars have passed, Farrah, Billy Mays, Michael Jackson. Several others are sick and dealing with horrible diseases and pain. Patients in the hospital where I work are passing away from that horrible disease, cancer, and one died 2 nights ago on the operating table, not from the cancer but from complications. There are so many families out there just stunned right now. So many going through so much agony and pain. It's scary and it's sad.

It almost makes you feel guilty sometimes for having a good day, a day where you laughed, smiled, and maybe even danced.

We had a day like that today. My boys had an othro appt. and we got done really fast, record breaking time today. So afterwards, we hit Walmart and Dollar Tree. My oldest doesn't mind going to Walmart because of the video games. But the Dollar stores make him nuts. He wanted me to drop him off. I told him I would buy him something and we laughed. There were days when that worked you know. But when you are 15, not so much! I kind of layed on a little guilt trip about having to drive all the way back home and then back to the store. He rolled his eyes. Again I tried the "I'll buy you something" trick. He caved. On the way to the store, my other son started singing Lollipop Lollipop oh lolly lollipop and we all did the pop sound and laughed. That got us talking about good old songs.....you know "oldies" like the ones that dear old mom grew up with. So I threw on the oldies station. There was Leo Sayer belting out "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing". And we were singing and dancing! Even the 15 yr old. I was surprised they knew the song. Here it was on one of the Goofy Movies from when they were little. How cool is that! So we were singing and dancing and I was so glad that we had that little time today. The boys were goofing off in the dollar store and I even bought them one of those foam like footballs for the beach since we are going this weekend.

See, they can still be bought!

As they get older, I appreciate days like today more and more. I value my time with the kids. I love seeing them laugh together and enjoy being together.

I think having days or hours like that is important and in a way, it's a way to honor the gift of our lives. The gift that maybe sometimes we take for granted, even if we don't mean to do it. It's a way to honor the ones we've lost, even if we lost them a while ago.

Take a little time today to honor yourself, your family, your gifts. And like they say, dance like no one is watching, and who really cares if they are. Maybe they are enjoying just watching you!