Contentment

The other morning I got up, had breakfast, showered and got dressed for my day. I had a job interview that afternoon (my first one in all my weeks of searching!) and had promised to help a friend with an issue in the morning. Since I didn’t know how long that would take and wanted to be prepared should it take me right up to the interview time I put on the outfit I had recently purchased for job interviews: a cute white and black top and a straight black pencil skirt. I had a little time before I had to depart to pick up my friend so I turned my attention to a few household tasks, the kind that always need attention but can be ignored when more pressing things call. Nothing particularly interesting, not even worth writing about really. Except that as I did them, I felt this great sense of contentment. In the midst of boring, domestic activities, dressed to head out for a job interview, I realized that this was the life I had been looking for because I am finally living authentically.

I looked out the kitchen window at the morning sun and rested into the calm assurance of being true to myself, of not having anything hidden that I needed to be ashamed of, of simply being me. Perhaps you experience this feeling all the time. I certainly hope you do. I have had moments of being content in my life, but for the first time in all my years that contentment went soul-deep; nothing hidden, no fear of someone discovering my secrets, at peace with who I am and who I am becoming, a solid, simple peace. Sometimes I look at the lives other people lead. I see them sharing about their vacations and adventures and I envy them, because at present I’m doing well to keep my bills paid. There’s nothing wrong with having vacations or other great adventures. But where I’m at right now I am learning to find joy and contentment in my little world, in my simple life, in the amazing, wonderful friends who surround me, in the crisp clear sunlight on the mountains in the morning, on simply being alive and being myself. I hope that you also can experience that joy today.