Gratitude & Puffer Fish

i had a flat tire this morning. not at home tucked nicely in to my warm garage, but out on the interstate. and you know what? i couldn't have had a better start to my day!

how, you ask? well, i immediately recognized that there was a LOT to be thankful for. and when i realized that gratitude was my very first response, i got to be a little bit proud of myself. i've come a long, long way in a couple of short years.

so this is how my morning went down ...

my navigator has a nifty little "low tire pressure" light on my dash, which is sometimes set off when it's really cold, as it was this morning thanks to the first snowfall of the season!

but this morning i got the "really, really low tire pressure" warning so i pulled off the interstate and swung by my drycleaners to check it out. drycleaning in hand, i could hear the rear left tire hissing.

across the street from the drycleaner is a brand new tire store i hadn't really noticed before - it still has the "Grand Opening" sign hanging from the roof - so i drove the car across the street and was met at the curb by a technician who immediately told me "that's a BIG leak, i don't know if we can fix it."

they couldn't, thanks to a razor blade that i picked up along the road somewhere, so sometime this afternoon we'll have a brand new tire.

you know a flat tire is generally not a planned event. it disrupts your day. it usually costs money. it can involve getting dirty. but you know what? flat tires happen.

i chose the flat tire, and all the opportunities for gratitude it presented me:

1. my kids were already safely dropped off at their respective schools. i was alone with my egg mcmuffin (minus the icky canadian bacon).

2. i have a warning light on my truck. i knew something was out of wack. i got off the interstate before it went completely flat, thereby sparing myself the pleasure of enduring icy, wet splashback from a heavily traveled slushy road while waiting for AAA or my husband to come rescue me.

3. there was a brand new tire store in the perfect location to solve my problem.

4. they can get the right tire for me by this afternoon. i get my car back today.

5. i didn't ever have to get out my car and pretend i knew how to change my tire, much less knew where my spare's located. (i do now). my hands never got dirty!

6. $250 is now put in circulation via the tire store, which will pay its employees, who will spend their paycheck and keep that money in circulation ... it's all about the flow, baby!

and speaking of flow and gratitude ... (here comes the quick topic change back to Hawaii) ...

well, i'm obviously very thankful we departed the Big Island of Hawaii a week before the earthquake, whose epicenter was just off our hotel's beach in waikaloa. experiencing an earthquake is NOT on my list of things to do before i die!

i'm thankful that, in spite of significant structural in infrastructre damage, there were relatively minor injuries and no fatalities!

i'm thankful the nice people who served us during our stay there are safe.

and i'm grateful for puffer fish ... one in particular, who assisted me in truly experiencing relaxing and getting in to the flow.

the hilton waikoloa is built around a lagoon that opens right up in to the ocean. i snorkeled in this lagoon nearly every day and on our last day i went out for a final snorkel with the intention of seeing the elusive eel i kept hearing about and swimming alongside a massive sea turtle again.

i started early, knowing that the lagoon gets a little murky in the afternoons. but i didn't see a darn thing except a bunch of puffer fish. curious thing about puffer fish - they're way more interesting if they're puffed, but puffing them means they're frightened or spooked so the intentional puffing of a puffer fish feels rather cruel to me.

i never saw a puffer fish in full puff.

but in a moment of clarity, i simply let go of my snorkeling agenda and decided to just hang with the puffers. so i picked the handsomest fella i could find and just followed him around at his speed, zig zagging around the lagoon.

and before i knew it i'd seen not one, but four eels. two were a nifty blue color, one was neon green, and one poor gray fella.

i stopped and thanked my puffer guide. then reminded him that a turtle would be nice too.

we swam back to the mouth of the lagoon and who did we meet swimming in?

mr. giant sea turtle. head to feet he was longer than i am tall. and he was beautfiul and graceful and peaceful. i swam above the turtle for half an hour totally thrilled that this is what my life looks like!

i can't tell you for certain that i wouldn't have seen these sea creatures anyway, but when i stopped and made a conscious shift in my way of being in that moment - from frustration to gratitude - well, that's when miracles happen.

here's to gratitude and miracles every day!