Seven Comforting Things

When people are going through hard times, and if they’re the praying kind, they say those three words to others:  “pray for me.”  Depending on where you are in the praying game, this might mean a lot to you or it might mean nothing.  Hey man, whatever.  Be cool. 

I always pray.  I am the praying kind, and I’m good like that. 

There are two things I pray for those who ask for prayer: Comfort and peace. 

Comfort and peace, comfort and peace, comfort and peace.  I’m all about comfort and peace.  I manage my life to experience comfort and peace.  No drama, nothing extreme.  If I were an animal, I’d be a cat.  A cat who wears a shirt that says comfort and peace – no caps, because caps are yelly.

There is comfort, and there is comfort.  I’m all about emphatic comfort. 

It’s not always easy to come by, comfort.  Sometimes life just doesn’t give us this option.  Some days we have a list of errands to run that includes a teeth cleaning and a mammogram.  Sometimes we have to go to the grocery store the night before Thanksgiving.  And sometimes?  Sometimes we’re just crabby and we crumple comfort and peace up into a ball and throw it in the gutter.

We are only human, after all.  Not cats, sigh.

So I made a list of seven things that bring me the emphatic comfort – you know, to remind me on those gutter ball days.

7 Things That Bring Me Comfort

1. A couch, a book, and a blanket.  It’s a cliché.  Who cares.  When I settle into the corner of our couch with a book under our softest blanket, nothing can penetrate the cocoon of comfort I’ve created.  Add some soft instrumental music for bonus peace points.  Don’t bother me.

2. Knowing I’m in for the night.  My kids are at ages where they have activities every night that require me to drop off and pick up.  I’m in and out of the car more from the hours of 3 to 9 pm than any other time of the day.  When the door shuts behind us after the last pick up, I collapse in a heap of relief and comfort, knowing that we are all here in the same place at the same time.

3. Completing a task.  Whether it’s drying the last dish after dinner or writing the next three months’ worth of activities into the calendar, when I’m done, I’m comforted by the accomplishment.  I won’t pretend to be an ace at multi-tasking – how does anything get completed that way?  The comfort of a job well done drives me to be a single tasking whiz.

4. Coming home.  I like going away on vacation as much as the next guy, but when the unpacking is done and the first load of laundry started and I slide my toes under my very own covers in my very own bed on the first night home… there is no other feeling.

5. End of year holidays.  Don’t get me wrong – the busyness of this season wears me right out.  Every year I try to do something different to make it less crazy and more comfy and every year I am a failure.  Grabbing the moments of here-and-now-ness that fill me with peace and comfort help, though: tuning the car radio into the all-holiday-music-all-the-time station, walking through the Christmas tree display in every store, taking the long way home to see the holiday lights.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  Don’t forget it.

6. Waking up in the morning.  I’m one of those thankful-for-another-morning types who loves to wake up after a good night’s sleep.  I love the newness of each day.  None of us is guaranteed another morning – I’m comforted when I get one.  Don’t judge me.

7. Food.  Are you kidding?  It’s my favorite comfort of all.

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This post inspired by:

Mama Kat's Writing Workshop

Prompt #3: List seven things that bring you comfort.