The way I feel sometimes is totally awesome. Sounds clichéd? Well, maybe, yes. But, still the same, that’s how I feel. Now, why would I say that?

It’s not about the absolute pinnacle that I am. HA! Not even close. I’m getting old and older every day. I have aches, pains and signs of decline in physical strength. It’s been a tough year this year with increasing evidence I’m not young any more.

So what’s awesome?

Awesome is this. In spite of all the adversity in life I’m still here. I sit in a comfortable home with a nice little yard with great neighbors. I have a church where I can attend and people like me and the ones who don’t just haven’t gotten to meet me yet. I live in a community that is a growing, thriving area. What used to be local only business, which isn’t a bad thing, but now there’s corporate interest in this small town.

Awesome is a wonderful wife. Libby has saved my life in many ways. She’s redirected my thinking towards future goals and accomplishments. I had fallen stagnant. I feel I was literally attempting to fulfill my dad’s prophetic voice that I would die by the time I was sixty. I told him then I wasn’t buying what he was selling. Libby helped me past that and here I sit at the age of sixty-five.

Awesome is also having small things in life that some don’t consider such. Our dogs, Paige, Sarah and Fiesta are the most wonderful little creatures on earth, but that’s not all. Libby, in the kindness of her heart, couldn’t resist taking in three abandoned kittens. Now we also have Georgia, Gracie and Juan (more makes three). The dogs sleep around me while the cats run around playing like crazy little animals that can’t be contained sometimes.

Awesome means also that this past summer showed me God’s wonders in our yard. It was our first summer here and it was like a surprise every day to go out and see what new thing there was. Elephant ears are all along the ditch. Azaleas in full bloom abound along a long row. The Magnolia tree bloomed for what seemed like months. We set up a bird bath with flowers and flowers around the mailbox. Squirrels came from nowhere. A Gardenia bush bloomed down on the front corner of the house. We found we have a crab apple tree, too.

Awesome comes in all forms. Libby and I let a huge old rose bush give it a go before we would have dug it up, but eventually I cut it down to about eighteen inches. Libby still prodded me to dig it up, but I thought like the Bible said to prune, fertilize and give it another year, but before fall had come to now it has sprouted new growth and is looking like a breath of fresh air.

Awesome came in the name of a garden we planted this year. At one point we had over 100 tomatoes coming to ripe at one time. Bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, okra, and beside the carport five feet high cherry tomato bushes grew and loaded up with those sweet little tomatoes. I planted cabbage and collards and the bugs and worms tried to take that over, but still, we got a good helping of collards at Thanksgiving and likely have enough for Christmas dinner as well. We’re looking forward to enlarging and planting much more next spring.

A co-worker of Libby’s sold us an upright freezer that looks absolutely new and we now have it nearly full of food. Libby has canned apple butter and apple jelly till it’s coming out of our ears. We froze some tomatoes for soups and such. God has blessed us.

Awesome is another way of putting it when Libby and I have been able to remodel two bedrooms and paint the hallway, dining and kitchen area and put down new flooring in the bedrooms. We have also redone the laundry room with fresh paint, flooring and a platform for the washer/dryer. That leaves room underneath for clothes baskets to sort clothes in without sorting out of a hamper. Lots and lots of shelving was put up and just last weekend I cleaned out the storage room at the back of the carport and put up more shelving so we can walk around in there now and not trip up on stuff.

Awesome you say? How can all the normal run of the mill things be awesome. Well, look around you. How does the world look to you? There are lots of things going wrong in the world and it looks like it’s caving in on itself. But my friend, it’s the simple things in life that are awesome.

So look around and you’ll find awesome, simple stuff that has in reality blessed you this year. God is still in control. That’s what is the most awesome.