It’s something we’ve said jokingly for so many Christmases, I’d come to hardly notice it. But this year, something shifted. Along about the seventh or eighth “it’s a Christmas miracle!” I actually started to count, numbering the list, acknowledging it out loud.

Christmas Miracle Number 9.

Sure, most of the things have been tiny, hardly worth a mention but for the gratitude any amount of margin or headache relief or ease a little miracle might bring. The day (after a week of searching) I found the “Clemson Jacket Men’s Small” and the “Gamecock Jacket Men’s XXL” in one location—and both on sale. The time I was running late and every downtown stop light turned green. Going back to Joann Fabric for one more cookie tin, finding the shelves empty, then spotting one last errant one, nestled among the doormats. (Oh, that was a happy find.)

Tiny things, like I said. But at this time of year? Every. Single. One. has been part of an equation I now find hard to ignore. So much so, in fact, I’ve started keeping a written list, a reminder, for me, there is so much good in the world. (#8: The sweet check-out girl at Food Lion, who brightened our day with her precious smile and genuine interest in where we had been—we were all dressed up—and what we were doing next.)

It makes me remember, too, that I can be part of the good. I so often run around wild, intent on Getting Things Done because there is So Much To Do. But you know what? It’s not that difficult to smile, to take moment, to be patient and helpful and interested.

To notice, and also to acknowledge.

***

I like my little list; I love the idea of keeping track, adding up, of keeping score and it being a scorecard of good. Because even in a world gone crazy, all around us—and also within us—goodness still abounds.

XXOO

30 Days of Joy