Another Gratitude Blog

Life is Good: I'm just plain thankful!

Month of Gratitude, Day 9

I am grateful for...
good health, safety, and well-being. A roof over our heads that keeps us warm when it is cold and cool when it is warm. I am grateful for my two little alarm clocks even on the weekends when I'd love to sleep in! I'm grateful for music and art and the magnificence that is nature. For walks around the lake in the sunshine. And just for sunshine! For painted skies. For sushi. For the words, "mommy" and "mama" and all of the other words that are strung together in story and song and love. And chocolate. Of course, chocolate.

I am thankful for...
technology that keeps me feeling close to loved ones far away. And newborn babies for their teeny tiny feet and the hope they bring to the world. For crisp fall mornings surrounded by yellow, gold, red, and burnt orange. For the ocean and the sand. For a steak cooked on the grill by my dad. And the sparkle in my dad's eye. And salted caramel anything.

I give thanks for...
second and third cousins who love and support us like siblings. For days when everything is in its place! Or at least moments like that. For family time, butterscotch budino from 112 Eatery, photographs and the cameras that capture moments we will never get back. For the process of making things, party planning, and hosting. And for the friends who allow me to entertain them in our space. For levity. For poetry. For fresh-squeezed lemonade on a hot day. For foot rubs and acupuncture and my Pilates trainer.

And friends. On the phone or across the table. Smiles, gestures, invitations. Listening ears, laughing hearts, and kindred spirits. Slow mornings, a warm bed, the miracle of the nebulizer, paper, markers and paint. And cashmere. Peonies, tulips, and new blooms in Spring. Cheese of any and all varieties. Art. From Michelangelo to Matisse & Picasso to the Outsider Artists of which no one knows their names. For color and texture and wonder. For treehouses and quilts and picnic blankets.

For Cape Cod and North & South Carolina. For southern accents and my mom calling people, "sugarplum". For long, hot showers, broccoli, cheesecake, and lazy summer nights. For baby bunnies, kittens, hammocks, and pedicures. For cheese curds, which sound gross, but taste amazing.

I am grateful that my husband goes to work earlier than most so that he can race home and spend quality time with us at the end of the day. And that he takes out the trash so that I don't have to. For coffee with cream & sugar, blue skies, sunflowers, giggles, snuggles, Lego inventions and reinventions, vacations to extraordinary places. For my grandma's handwritten letters. For a great pair of shoes. And zucchini!

I am thankful for all of these things and more. All created for us by God, who is infinitely creative and wise. Whose majesty is simply beyond my words, my capabilities. I am so very grateful for the enormity of this world's blessings...