Suburban Bliss

It hit me last night, as I was pulling up to Rubio's for dinner. Something I'd been ruminating on for about a week and had finally put my finger on: we're so lucky and so blessed. This - this moment right now, and the one before, and the one before that, and every one since he got home - is the brass ring, this is what all of the work and sacrifice and tears are about. This life. This bliss.

We have soft, cuddly cats who love us (and tell us so frequently - and loudly)
We have an amazing bed with soft bamboo sheets
We have our little plot in the community garden, with squash and cucumbers o'plenty, the occasional strawberry, and hope yet for tomatoes
We have Saturday morning Farmers Market, with our cloth bags and the vendors we see week after week who know us because we're always there, too
There's laundry - clean, mostly, and tidying, and ceiling fans, and refrigerators to be cleaned out before trash day
And his calling to ask me what I want from Starbucks because I've had a bad day at work

I was so afraid, when he was in Japan, that something would happen before we'd get to the "good part". That nearly two years would go by and then, before we could celebrate his being home, we'd be torn apart by some other, unspecified challenge to overcome. I have always, and will probably always still be, worried about the horrible things that the future might bring. (Yes, I know it's stupid, but that's why it's an irrational fear, people. Stay with me.) But just now I've realized that, while that terrible thing might happen, it can't happen before the good stuff does because the good stuff is right now. Right here. In my amazingly beautiful house (don't ask about the furniture, but the house itself is gorgeous). With my handsome husband. During the college courses I'm taking. While I walk to raise money for breast cancer.

Right now is the very best time of my life and I want to take it all in through each of my senses so that I never forget. No matter what happens tomorrow, I have experienced pure love and joy today.