"This is the Life"

My husband and I caught the last twenty minutes of Oprah the other day (I'm usually way too busy to watch TV during the day... but that day was an exception) and she had the former first lady, Laura Bush and her two daughters on the show. They were discussing Laura's book that is out now. The book talks about Laura's life in her words. Her childhood, life before George's presidency, during presidency and their lives now. It talks about the day of 911 and the aftermath in the White House. She even mentions things that most would have never known - for example, did you know that everyone at the White House has to PAY for their food - even the first family?? So that means that the Obama's get a bill every week for the food that that they eat! That also means that if the President has guests come to dinner with them, he has to pay for his family as well as his guests to eat dinner in the White House. They may live there... but they have to pay to eat. Crazy.
So.... in watching Laura and her daughters talk about what they've learned about life up to this point, Oprah states that there was a paragraph in particular that she read in Laura's book that she felt completely describes who Laura is in the utmost sense. I can't remember the whole paragraph, but, the very end of what Laura said was what grasped me - "It was the moments when the baby girls were put to bed for the night and I would be out weeding the flower garden as I glimpse the sunset and George would be sitting on the steps of the front porch reading the newspaper, it was at that moment I would just think, 'This is the life'.

So simple isn't it? But I love that. It's the small, simple things. It's when we try to complicate life and try to go for bigger and better that we lose sight of the great and wonderful things that really matter and mean the most. Bigger is most certainly not always better.  It's just like how I attended my cousin's wedding this evening..... I wrote in their wedding card something that my husband and I have learned from our relationship - allow yourself to take in even the smallest of things in life together because those are the things that make memories and mean the most above all of those big things (good or bad) that happen in the journey.  Jesus gave each one of us a life to live with abundance and joy.... it is far too short to bypass those simple joys that only come if we stop long enough to enjoy and savor them.

I have a feeling if I ever had the chance to sit down and have a conversation with Laura Bush, we would have a great time just chatting about life.... I completely and thoroughly loved what she said about 'this is the life' because I think that so often, myself - even though those times are such simple times. They're my favorite.  :)