Last week I was occupied with making preparations for overnight guests and my husband’s fraternity reunion.  The flurry of activity included meal preparation, yard work and housecleaning along with self-induced pressure to begin and complete paint projects.  As I am prone to do, I found myself obsessing about getting every detail just “perfect” while becoming more and more stressed and less and less enthusiastic about the weekend.

Thankfulness wasn’t my focus.  That is until something I did not anticipate happened.  On Tuesday morning as I walked passed the front door in my pj’s heading to the kitchen for coffee, I was shocked to see my friend Daisy pulling into my driveway.  In my self-induced “everything must be ready and everything must be perfect” obsession (I had already cancelled other meetings) I had completely overlooked cancelling this scheduled morning coffee meeting.  Too late.  I ran to get dressed.  Daisy was at the door and I needed to regroup.  Daisy wasn’t aware of the circumstances and she needn’t be the victim of my great angst.

During our coffee together I had an “aha”.  I realized that Daisy’s visit was a wakeup call.  It was a reminder of the importance and value of living and being in the present.  The time spent with a friend at that moment was more important than time spent trying to control a future outcome and trying to achieve an elusive perfection.  The time we spent together was full of treasure.  Had I cancelled our planned time together I would have missed out on an exceptional experience.

This serendipity reframed my thinking and set a context for many of my “thankfuls”.  It also reminded me of a quote: “do not let perfect be the enemy of good”.  With this I resolved to try to be more in the moment and less frantic about perfection.

Here’s my week #2 list of thankfuls:

1. My husband for constructing and installing the new bird feeder (with squirrel defying baffles!) in the back yard where I can see it every morning when I awake.
2. My husband’s fraternity brothers and their wives for their warm and enduring friendships and attendance at the recent weekend reunion.  The “brotherly” love is very touching and inspiring.
3. The creative, positive and powerful energy from the group of ladies (wives) who attended the fraternity reunion.  It was energizing to be with such talented and smart women.
4. The annual Friends of Callawassie Island Yard Sale (to raise money to support local non-profit organizations) and our selfless community members.  I bought a beautiful sofa and Italian/Portuguese dinner ware for a total of $263!  They even happily delivered the new sofa and took away the old.
5. Advancements in pet care that make it possible to treat Cagney’s (our 15 year old Ragdoll) health issues at home.  For the past six months I’ve been giving him an IV saline treatment (the cat form of dialysis) every third day.  It has significantly improved his health outcomes.
6. Snack “baggies” to measure out and freeze my sweet treats.  The goal is only one measure per evening.
7. The three colleagues (Debbie, Ginny and Daisy) who met me for coffee last week and unselfishly shared their time and engaged in an exchange of ideas with me.
8. The freedom to choose how I spend my time each day and the challenge to choose wisely.
9. Improving health and physical capacity.
10. For remembering:  Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.