I'm overwhelmed. Is it possible to have too many heavenly moments?

No, I'm sure it's not possible to have too many heavenly moments. It's not like eating to much candy or French fries. I've discovered that as I focus on things that I am thankful for, I find myself enveloped in that warm fuzzy feeling of "Pinch me. Can this really be MY life? It's so amazingly wonderful!!" I don't know if you've seen the movie, "Joe Versus the Volcano", but in the movie, Joe is stranded out in the middle of the ocean for who knows how long. It just so happens that he is floating on his extremely expensive set of waterproof luggage which is fully stocked with everything he needs to barely sustain life. Prior to this predicament, he was a severe hypochondriac who hated his life. On his last visit to a doctor he was given the news that he is dying. One night, while he was floating on his luggage, he looked up and saw the full moon when it was at it's largest, hovering over the horizon. He stood up, stretched his arms up toward the sky and said, "Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life".

Earlier in the movie, Patricia, the girl he meets along the way, casually makes this statement: My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.

Maybe what I'm experiencing is that feeling of being "awake" enough to realize how BIG my life is. The trigger for the awakening is gratitude. This blog has kept my thoughts on the many things that I have to be thankful for. There are so many that I don't even know where to begin writing about even the things that just happened this week!! Everyone has to live on this planet. It's a given that no one gets out of this life without living a LOT of both good and bad moments. I guess that the "sleeping" people Patricia referred to in the above statement, are the people who spend their lives focusing on the bad things that happen to them, or the bad things around them. I have definitely had my lifetime of BAD moments. I'm so extremely thankful that I have the chance to shut off that focus and experience being "awake". Even the most horrible "life", (situation), has much beauty to be found if beauty is sought after. Think about all of the amazing stories from the World War II prison camps. There were those who focused on the bad around them and they just gave up and died. Then, there were those who rose above their circumstances and found things to be thankful for. They not only lived, but lived to become a light, a beacon of hope to those around them. Those individuals went on to be "awake" for the rest of their lives and some continue even today to be a living beacon of hope, joy, gratitude, and love.

I'm so thankful for my life! As I watch my grown children I marvel at their ability to rise above the negative aspects of life and focus on the positive. As I stated in an earlier post, I was not a "happy mommy" when my children were young. It breaks my heart to remember me then. But my heart swells with overwhelming joy and gratitude as I speak with my now, adult children on the phone, or read their blogs. They speak about how thankful they are for their lives, their experiences and opportunities, their spouses, or their little ones. Their pictures, their remembrances of daily moments, their "focus" is on the good, and their love for their spouses and their tiny children grows tangibly larger every day. How could I not feel like I'm in heaven as I daily witness this?