This Life Is Good (there's a svithe in here somewhere)

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It hit me the other day as I was walking home from work that these are my good old days. Sure there are imperfections, but my life is about as good as it can be.

A few things triggered this realization:

Most immediately, it was seeing the corkboard. There's a corkboard on our street that one of the neighbors maintains that anyone can put a note on. Currently there's one about shameless makeup manufacturers and one that suggested I have a good day. How cool is it to live in a neighborhood where neighbors leave notes saying their band is playing or their dog is missing or they're old enough to babysit now?

Before I left campus I passed a group of students--about half of whom I taught last year--and they all shouted out heys and hellos to me and waved and said good things about me to their friends.

Earlier in the day, I had a student randomly stop by whom I had arranged not to be in my class this semester because last semester he spent half his time yelling at me and preventing other students from working. Never had I been so sure someone was about to hit me. But he dropped into my class of a sudden and told everyone to be good and that I'm his favorite teacher. I can't imagine what his relationships are with his other teachers.

And that doesn't even get to the good times I spend with the Big O and Large S, throwing balls around every afternoon and having them run to the door happy to see me when I come home.

Seriously. When will life be better than now?

I may not be able to afford to always live in this neighborhood. My job may not always turn out okay. My kids may not always be 90% hugs.

But right now life is good and I'm making deposits in the memory bank. In general, I'm optimistic that next week will be as good and that the years get better, but no matter what happens, life is good now.

last week's svithe