peaceful day.

I'm currently listening to my iPod playlist titled "Quiet My Soul."
Current song playing:  "Broken Hallelujah" by The Afters. 

Today has been restful.  I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm this morning, which was nice -- to wake up on my own.  Side note:  something I've always remembered from psychology class is that when you wake up on your own without an alarm or something startling you awake, it's called "waking consciousness."  And there's your random fact of the day.  

Anyway, I was off work today and didn't have to go anywhere, but wanted to be productive and not waste the day.  Originally, I had intended to go to the courthouse to pay my car tag registration and renew my passport.  But yesterday I acquired three -- not one, not two, but THREE -- terrible zits on my face, and there was no way I was going to get my passport photo made in this condition!  I mean, come on.  I have to show that picture to people for the next ten years.  You understand, right?  

So when I woke up, I grabbed my iPod, opened the Notes app, and sleepily typed out a to-do list entitled "On this rainy Wednesday..."  It wasn't actually raining at the time; in fact, the sun was peeking through the clouds, but I knew rain was in the forecast for the day.  Hence, the to-do list title.  Six simple items made it onto the list -- enough to keep me focused and somewhat productive on my day off. 

After going downstairs and making my coffee, I remembered an email I needed to send to a friend, so I took care of that, browsed Facebook for a bit, then settled onto my couch for some Jesus time.  I journaled a brief prayer to the Lord, mostly thoughts about the 2-month countdown to Alaska, and then Psalms 18 and 19 were today's reading.  A few excerpts that grabbed my heart's attention today:  

"For You light my lamp; the Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall."  (18:28-29)
"You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and Your gentleness makes me great."  (18:35)
"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."  (19:1)
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer."  (19:14) 

Presumably, the rest of today should have been spent doing the rest of the things on my to-do list, but in all honesty, it's 5:20pm and I've only done two of the six.  Nevertheless, the day hasn't been wasted.  I've communicated with a couple of friends, conversations that were "unplanned," and went on a long walk with my 12-year-old sister.  As it turned out, it hasn't rained at all today (so my list, by its title, was null anyway, right?!) and was actually beautiful weather.  It's February 19th, but it felt like a spring day -- or a summer day in Alaska!  It was refreshing to be outside, and good to spend that time with my baby sister.  She's growing up fast into a young lady.  

The point to this blog post?  I guess there isn't one.  Just that I'm thankful for days of restfulness, days of soul-refilling, days of little expectation but much expectancy.  May you have some of those days soon, too.  Look for Jesus in the little things.... He is there.  

Current song playing on the "Quiet My Soul" playlist:  "10,000 Reasons" by Rend Collective.