Simply Different...and Happy

The last several weeks feel a bit lost, to be honest.  Not in the sense that we've wasted time or spent it unwisely, but in more of a haze from the everyday joy that is us...together. We were all sick.  It snowed. A lot. We made s'mores on the gas range and dragon forts in the park. The snow melted.  We played in the mud.  The sun came out.  We played in the dirt. We made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate their lovely alliteration. We watched the ice skaters at the Rathaus. We got sick again...and now we are all well.

For instant adventure, just add a backpack.

These past weeks have been filled with the redundant tasks and activities that make up most people's lives...but somehow we've managed to never let them feel weighty or monotonous. We sprinkle in a few lovely surprises every day and it becomes a life full to overflowing.  My children are still cheeky and, on occasion, disobedient.  I feel frustration and impatience every day.  I lose my temper and have to apologize more frequently than I'd like.  We are not living in a bubble--we are living in this world. But we are happy.  And I find, more and more, that this sets us apart.

If I've learned nothing else this past year, it is that we are different; we are not American and certainly not Austrian.  We do not adhere to any label we can think of...and so we are simply happy. Or, as Audrey and John would tell you:  "Yeah, we're a little bit happy."  Those two will admit to nothing. 

This weekend was spent taking each day as it came, mapping out laid-back plans over pancakes, all of which became subject to change if a most excellent playground had been spotted. We found joy in discovering a part of the city that we hadn't yet traversed.  We felt like kings, eating schnitzel and cakes served by waiters in bow ties...all because we had the immense pleasure of doing it together.


We are living in Vienna and yet finding ourselves set aside from it.  This is where we want to be--where we are happy.  Where the pressures and the stresses and silly expectations of the world are held on the shoulders of one far mightier than us.  Where our real challenge lies in how to love each other and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

Friends, lately there has really been nothing new in our lives. We will not regale you with tales of Viennese balls or trips to exotic locations...but we still wake up in anticipation of a blessed and thrilling day every morning.  Here we are holding on to each other in our inelegantly carved-out niche of happiness, knowing the joy of a simply different life.