Finding Satisfaction

Finding satisfaction on in your spouse, your home and your job is tough when there are so many reminders in magazines, on television and in the news of how much more others have: celeb hunks who fawn over their wives, clean beautifully designed houses, and dream jobs that are fulfilling yet somehow provide great work-life balance.

But a poem I found this morning in my devotional Bible by Helen Lowrie Marshall was the perfect reminder about finding true satisfaction.

Each day, upon my daily round,

I find myself on holy ground-

The morning-glories on my fence

Inspire quiet reverence.

Just one small, tender seedling grew,

And now, this miracle in blue.

A robin in the apple tree

Sings out his glad doxology.

I hear the pure, unsullied joy

of laughter from a little boy;

I bow before the firm belief

And faith of one who lives with grief;

I watch a jet plane skim the skies

And marvel at man’s enterprise;

I look upon a field of wheat

And thank God for the bread we eat;

I watch the benediction rain

on low-bowed heads of flower and grain.

A friend drops in, a neighbor calls,

The lamps are lit, night gently falls;

Contentment settles with the sun

In labors of the day well done.

So many little altars there,

So many little calls to prayer,

So many reasons for thanksgiving-

The sacraments of daily living.

I was impressed that she could see a wheat field from her home. (Seriously cool.) I was also intrigued by the way everything in her world inspires thankfulness and a satisfaction for what God has already given instead a longing for more.

Reading her poem, I started thinking, what are the daily scenes that inspire me to be thankful? So here is my much shorter poem.

Each day when I open my eyes

And wake on a bed warm and dry

Looking into the eyes of my beau

And getting to the train station safely too.

Looking out the window at the cars, grass and trees that surround

Daily graces in His word are found.

In the quick train naps I take

And the exercise during my lunch break,

Joyful conversations at work and school

Sustain me 'til I return to my bed to dream and drool. (Lol)

Moments so easily overlooked yet are joy-giving

The sacrament of urban sprawl living.

Not quite the tranquil masterpiece that Marshall so expertly published, but this my life and these are things inspire me each day. (Well, not so much the drool.)

What inspire you? Where do you find satisfaction?