Things to Be Happy About (Day 3)

 *Whatsapp voice messages from friends!

*Continuing to prepare new workshops for next week, and two students have already registered

*A jaunt to the mall to buy birthday gifts for friends and new t-shirts to replace my grubby ones

*Catching up with a former student who works in a shop in the mall, congratulating him on graduating from high school, and encouraging him to enroll in an upcoming class or workshop. He was in my class of high schoolers a few years back who made me cheer when they had mastered writing complete sentences--subject, verb, capital letter to start with, and ending punctuation. Small victories.

*Dropping a little gift by the home of the friend who messaged me earlier today and said, "Come see me!" I told her I thought I was too busy today, but that I would come next week. So it wasn't a surprise that she was sleeping when I dropped by.

*Buying a night stand for my other apartment.

*Having one of my former students ask me when my birthday is, because I had wished one of his classmates a happy birthday today in our group, and I try to remember all of my students' birthdays (even though some of them don't technically celebrate their birthdays). I told him, because there's no way he'll actually remember my birthday. Ha ha.

*Psalm 139 (The Passion Translation) reminding me how much God cares about me. I read it this morning, just after feeling discouraged about being a problem to some people. I came away thinking, "This says that I'm not a problem to God."

*The Verses app. It's been years since I worked consistently on Scripture memorization, so this is a fun way to get back into it. I especially like the feature that lets me say the verse into my phone, and the app tells me which words I messed up on! I mean, having a human to do that for you is more fun, but when there's no one around to bug, this is the next-best thing.

*Pocari Sweat. It sounds disgusting, but it's just an electrolyte drink like Gatorade.

*The books I'm reading. (Note: I'm not endorsing these titles, just reading them.) They make me think big thoughts, and I love big thoughts because they make me feel smart. No comments from the peanut gallery, thank you very much.
     So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)
    The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander)
    Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope (Jasmine L. Holmes)
    (about to start this one)
     In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees (Jeff Talarigo)
    The Overstory (Richard Powers)
    A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Eugene Peterson)
    Dirty Glory: Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You (Pete Greig & Bear Grylls)
    Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
    Your Perfect Year: A Novel (Charlotte Lucas, translated by Alison Layland)
   40 Days with the Holy Spirit: A Journey to Experience His Presence in a Fresh New Way
   (R.T. Kendall)
(And in case you ever wondered if I'm the kind of person who reads more than one book at once, apparently I am.)