Simple Joys

Welcome to Simple Joys on Chief 187™Chatter.

What Simple Joys offers me is sanity during the times I cannot find mine. Peace in unsettled times. Perspective when I’m feeling like all is out of whack.

Mostly, plain and simple, Simple Joys are the reason life is worth living, pain is worth getting through, and I don’t ever give up.

Now, without further ado, is this week’s Simple Joys.

Baseball Tickets. Back in February my husband threw a ticket into a bag at the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Award Ceremony and Tricky Tray. We usually don’t win anything at those types of events, but that night we won 4 tickets at the local Minor League Baseball game.

It was very exciting to hear our number called and a sweet Simple Joy knowing that after the winter we’d have opportunity to spectate at a baseball game again.

Baseball Game. If you have yet to go to a Minor League Baseball Game, get thee to one immediately. This past weekend we attended the game we won tickets to in February.

Every inning there is some kind of competition with the audience members, the mascots jump, dance, and play, and contests are held.

The baseball is exciting and fun to watch and you are so close to the action. The food is delicious, much more reasonable than Major League stadiums, and your drive home is usually a breeze.

We experienced a fantastic night of baseball and fun that was a Simple Joy to start our long Memorial Day weekend.

Seatmates. A couple of fellas sat in our section and were instantly talkative with us. Turns out they were once freshmen in college roommates who had retained their friendship for over forty years.

We talked baseball mostly, but other topics as well, and we passed the time both watching the game and chatting.

At the conclusion of the game, the home team won, one of the players threw a ball into our section, and one of the gents caught it and immediately gave it to my eldest son.

Not only was the great company during the game a Simple Joy, but so was the act of kindness perpetrated on my son who received the ball.

Fireworks.

I really do love fireworks but get to see them less often in recent years. When raising my babies I find staying out ‘til dark and then having loud noises startle their sensitive nervous systems when they are overtired is just plain wrong so I keep them home on nights like the 4th of July.

Now that my babies are technically no longer babies I’m able to stay out on special occasions like the night baseball game we attended that ended with a fireworks display at the baseball park.

The display was breathtaking and so long! I always find it fascinating what ones the designer chooses to create the show. Old favorites mingle with new showy ones to forge a time of wonderment for all watching.

Getting the opportunity to see the fireworks display was a rare and fabulous Simple Joy.

Memorial Day Parade. For the only time ever my two sons marched in the town Memorial Day Parade both as Cub Scouts. This is my eldest son’s last year and my middle boy’s first year.

They proudly donned their uniforms, walked the long route, waved at the friends and neighbors who lined the street, and stayed for the special program that followed at Veteran’s Field.

Instilling a sense of civic duty, teaching the boys respect for those who serve, and spending the morning together as a family (four of us in uniform) are Simple Joys I am most thankful to experience.

Hectic times, stressful days, worries about the future both short and long term, and the fear of the unknown could easily swallow a person up whole.

Simple Joys are the panacea that alleviate and elevate me to a plane where I know I’ll smile, laugh, and love strongly and blissfully at any given moment.

Try to identify your Simple Joys throughout the week and notice how much happier, positive, and engaged you are in your best life!

Please join me tomorrow as I wax poetic on yet another topic on Chief 187™Chatter.