One Thing

Daily writing prompt

Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.

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One simple thing. Not some complicated thing like writing a song or fixing a customer’s programming issue or cooking dinner for my wife and our kids. No, something simple. Something small scale.

I’ve got one. A good one.

Somewhere along the line my wife and I got into a routine that had her falling asleep before me. We’d go to bed at the same time (put your dirty minds away, we’re not talking about any funny business here) but due to my weight problems and my massive sleep apnea problem I had a tendency to snore at an absurd volume. If I fell asleep first, Jen would be awake all night. The solution was to have me sit up in bed to let her fall asleep first. I don’t have the weight problem anymore (thanks, gastric bypass surgery) and I don’t seem to have the sleep apnea problem anymore (thanks again, gastric bypass) and while I do snore some, I don’t roar like I used to or do it as often. I still sit up in bed and let her go to sleep first. This is not the simple thing that brings joy to my life though.

There was one additional thing in our nightly bed time routine. While Jen was laying down trying to sleep and I was sitting up reading or surfing the net or watching a TV show on my iPad or laptop, I would rub her back. Thats the thing. That’s the simple thing that brings joy to my life. I just rub my bride’s back every night while she drifts off to sleep. It’s not that big a deal, but we’re both pleased it happens. Sometimes I’ll be doing something on my computer and won’t have a free hand and I get annoyed at myself for being distracted. She asks me to do it every night, sometimes while I’m already doing it. It’s just a thing we do at night and it’s just nice. It makes me happy. Sometimes I keep rubbing her back for a long time after she’s fallen asleep. Sometimes I’ll stop when she’s asleep and then after a while just start again for no reason. It’s just something we do.