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Every Little Thing by April Jeppson

The sun is shining.

I know, I know. That April gal sure writes a lot of articles about that weather. I do. I’m realizing that and I’m not going to apologize for it.

The sun is shining!

I was outside for maybe 20 minutes this morning when the vitamin D started to kick in. I could feel the weight of the world just evaporate off my shoulders. I started conversations with people I barely knew. I could hear the birds chirping, and I was smiling. If I had theme music, it would have been playing in the background. All was right with the world because I had 20 minutes of direct sunlight.

You don’t realize how bad something is until you experience something better. Maybe it’s your mood, or a relationship, or your mom’s cooking. We only know what we know. If you’ve eaten plain oatmeal for breakfast your entire life, you don’t realize that maybe there’s something better out there. You just eat it and go about your day. Then you experience pancakes or bacon. Or my personal favorite, over easy eggs with sourdough toast. Your pupils dilate and your entire world shifts.

We all know what summer feels like. We go through this every year. However, when you’ve been without something for a long time, your memory tends to betray you. You remember it feels good, but the details are lost.

I grew up eating tacos. At birthday parties or other special gatherings, we’d eat them. When my grandfather died and my grandma started dating again, we put her prospects to the taco test. What ingredients you use, the order you layer them in, even if you allow the juices to trickle down your wrist — it’s all part of the experience.

I digress.

So I grew up on tacos. It was a staple. Occasionally I make tacos for my little family, but small children don’t get excited about extra ingredients. So instead of the dozen or so ingredients I was raised on, I’d have just the basics. Kid-friendly choices. The tacos that I was making at my house were delicious, and I was satisfied.

Then I went home to visit my family and we had tacos. Holy cow. I knew what they tasted like because I’d eaten them for years. But man, oh man, how I’d forgotten. Literally every time I’ve gone home over the last 20 years and eaten tacos, I’m amazed at how good they are. As humans, we forget so quickly.

When that sun hit me this morning and a cloud didn’t make it disappear, when the heat was allowed to sit on my skin for a few minutes, it was in that moment that I realized how much I had missed that feeling and didn’t even realize how much I had missed that feeling, because I had forgotten how good that feeling was.

Did you follow that?

I’m so thankful for this weather so I’m going to go back outside and enjoy it. And now I really want some tacos. 

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams. Her column appears every Saturday.