Lagniappe Day

Today had lagniappe  - "a beneficient kind of extra, an extra you weren't expecting, but immensely glad to have." 

It turns out that someone I wanted to encourage and nurture, ended up comforting, listening, understanding, counseling and praying with me.   I came away feeling like someone had given my heart and spirit a massage, a chiro adjustment, a good scrubbing and put me to soak in an herb steam sauna all in one fell swoop.  Wow.  

Then tonight,  my darling family went and finished the job with sweet smelling 'moisturizer'.  Great steak supper out in the garden room, help in the yard and funny comic songs around the piano - hammin' it up.   

Life is beautiful.  It truly is a wonderful life.  But the truly part is a mixed bag; mostly life is lots and lots of swimming upstream and sometimes it feels like by the time you make it to the spawning ground your eyes are hanging by a thread, your fins are tattered, your scales are coming off in patches, your flesh is half rotten and your strength and courage nearly used up........but, you are compelled to finish the job - lay eggs, give life before yours is gone.  

So to rephrase it:  Life is really tough and in many ways hard, but it has these epic moments of awe, wonder, loveliness, kindness, inspiration, creativity, hope and best of all 'lagniappe', making it a beautiful, wonderful life over all. Truly.  

My paraphrase of a paraphrase from The Message - "Come away with me and rest awhile and learn the unforced rhythm of grace"     Sigh.  You'll find me there.  Swingin'