Drummer Man, Lemon Chicken, and a Place Called Home...

I'm learning to find comfort in myself...

To make time for all the things I love to do...

And "home" is what I make it...

The one thing I love in life is seeing people happy...
Doing the things they love...
Making the most of life in the time we have...
Sharing experiences and being ourselves...

Yesterday, I was exhausted after a long (and may I say fun) weekend of work. Driving to have lunch with a few co-workers, I found myself stopped on 4th South and 300 West in downtown SLC.

Stretching my neck, I turned and saw a gentleman in his beat-up work truck, wearing his fluorescent work vest and beat-up white work shirt, practicing the drums by pounding drumsticks upon the dashboard to the beat of a track--I can only assume--was playing on his stereo. It wasn't as if we were there long, or that he saw me, but it was a moment of life. He was his job, I was on my way to relax from mine. He was an individual with talents and goals, making the time for each wherever possible. I had taken the steps to achieve mine with my new job. I left smiling.

Tonight, after a planned coffee with a high school friend I haven't seen in 15 years, I found myself out to a forgotten dinner planned with the girls. Catching up over Chinese food, we laughed at our passed frustrations and disscussed our new worries, goals, jobs, boys--you know girl talk. Each of us reached for our chocolate fortune cookies with anticipation, and found ourselves in disappoitment. None of us received what we wanted (you know the fortune that says... "You will win a million dollars tomorrow." And it actually happens). Instead I received...

"All the water in the world can't sink a ship unless it gets inside."

O.k. Thanks for that.

So I left dinner and met up with a friend for dessert. Through our conversation I found myself telling one of my favorite stories during my last trip in Europe. I realized this time in telling, my moral in the story--"If you miss your train to catch your plane, there is always another way back home."--was like my fortune cookie. And the fortune cookie was like the stranger playing the drums in his truck.

I saw something in passing yesterday...

I received a fortune from my fortune cookie at dinner tonight...

I told a story to a friend over dessert and coffee...

And each melded together to a strange and comfortable realization.

There may be hiccups in achieving my dreams, but if I see the moments around me then the few seconds of waiting for a light to change from red to green will open my eyes to reflect upon my fortunes, and a story told many times before, can show the foundation to the home I plan to live in.