Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, dear ones.  Two days into my Thanksgiving Break and I am both exhausted and energized, full to the brim with rich food and love for my family and deep gratitude for the abundance in our lives.  Also a deep gratitude for 3 more days off...

Tonight, a list of thanks, and then a photo-recap of our week.

Grateful today:

For days off, a clean house, the chance to do up a real dinner party for people I love, my healthy children, my dog who makes everyone happy, ridiculously good roasted carrots, cousins, my rabbit, my husband who does all the things and makes me smile all the time...

For all of the people who have come into my life in this last year, in all sorts of ways-- my running friends, Norwex contacts, Choir friends, Community of Hope volunteers. I don't know quite how I'll be able to keep fitting new people and events into my days-- but I don't plan to stop! Grateful too for my extended family, and my friends-who-are-like-family, my Hiram crew, the people who are in my heart everywhere I go...

For the things I get to do, and for the gift of a strong body to do them:  working, even when it is crazy-hard and frustrating; running, even when I don't want to go out the door; singing, two to three days a week!;  laundry and dishes and tidying and all the mundanity of maintaining a home-- I *get to* do these things!

For the times my life has been difficult or insecure-- moving, being the "new kid," surviving middle school as a shy bookworm, difficult relationships, illness and loss in my family... because those times have taught me to persevere, to cope, to find beauty and joy and peace in the midst, and to be even more deeply grateful for the easy times.

For the gifts my parents gave me-- passions for books and music and words and architecture; opportunities to travel and learn and achieve, unconditional acceptance and lots of laughs. I am so grateful for the values I have and the things I love and the way I've learned to think and look at the world.  Forty-three years into this journey, I am finally comfortable in my own skin and really pretty fond of the person I've become-- the person they helped me be.

For the opportunity to be that force in the lives of my own children, for the gift they are in my life, even when I don't understand them, even when they infuriate me, even when their care feels like more work than I bargained for... their beauty takes my breath away and I am daunted by the responsibility of guiding them towards themselves and I don't ever want to take them for granted.

For the blessings of this ordinary life, having enough for my family and enough to share, the absolute gift of taking peace and stability and abundance for granted.

For my beautiful city and my beautiful country and all of the places there are to see and visit and dream of in this world.  For the gift of being alive in this time and opportunities to travel and learn and keep growing into the person I hope to be someday.