Thanksgiving

Someone mentioned the other day that there was a Facebook thing going on the asked people to list one thing you're thankful for each day through November. Since I am not doing this on Facebook, I'll do it here. In no particular order ...

1. I'm truly thankful for life--all of it.

2. I'm thankful for the work I do. It doesn't feel like work.

3. I'm thankful for my husband. We met in high school, broke up three years later, and got married seven years after that. I just never realized how truly unique, how truly difficult it is to find someone with whom a relationship seems simple. (Not that it's really simple, it just never seems difficult, even when there are bumps in the road.)

4. I am so thankful for my children. When I thought about having kids, it was some mythical put-them-in-the-corner/dust-them-off-for-Christmas kind of way, so the actuality was kind of a shock. They are amazing--they came to us with personalities in place and it has been an honor to be a part of their journey through life.

5. I am thankful that my parents raised me. From my mother, I learned compassion and being silly; from my father, I learned how to defend my thoughts and beliefs and that there was more in the world beyond what we knew. From both I learned integrity and honesty.

6. I'm thankful for my 6'6" little brother, who shared many hours in the car playing stupid games we invented, and who always thinks I'm better, more talented and more wonderful then I do.

7. I'm thankful that after my parents' deaths, my brother and I have gotten even closer. It's always wonderful to have someone who remembers you when you were a child and who shares the same memories and traditions of being young.

8. I am thankful for the friends I've had and kept, and those who have passed through my life. Each has left a mark on me ... like the Joni Mitchell song off of Blue, the name escapes me, but the line is "part of you pours out of me in these lines from time-to-time." Part of every friend I've had pours out of me in this life from time-to-time.

9. I am thankful for my in-laws. They have always been an inspiration, especially my mother- and father-in-law who were, in all senses of the word, true Christians.

10. I am thankful that I discovered I wanted to be a writer when I was 12 and never really looked back. I didn't know what I was going to write, just that I was going to write. And I have.

11. I'm thankful that there's always something more to learn, someone more to love.

12. I'm thankful for music.

13. I'm thankful that music is at the core of my being, the deepest way I learn, the deepest way I think, and I'm thankful for every moment I feel music sing in my soul so deeply I want to become that music.

14. I'm thankful my mother gave me her piano.

15. I'm thankful for color. I can spend hours--and often do--playing with color. I can hear music in color. I dream in color. I love to organize crayons or paint chips or embroidery floss skeins in rainbows. I love to look at a color and go into a paint store and match it from memory. I am thankful for that gift.

16. I am thankful that I have gotten to move around so much. I have loved every place we've lived, though there were always things I didn't like (humidity in St. Louis, for one) and I have found the history and people interesting to get to know.

17. I'm thankful for people who take the time to tell you that something you did made a difference in your life.

18. I'm thankful that I can tell someone else that what they did made a difference in my life.

19. I'm thankful that when I have been hungry, it has been by choice.

20. I'm thankful that I have always had a bed to sleep in, a blanket to keep me warm.

21. I'm thankful that we can pay our bills.

22. I'm thankful for all I inherited from my family--not just the heirlooms, though I'm thankful for those--but for those people who came before me and shaped me.

23. I'm thankful for books and movies and television -- it's not just entertainment; I've learned alot from pop culture, some of it even useful.

24. I'm thankful for those brilliant minds that continue to inspire me and the amazing, witty quotes that I seem to remember all the time... Wilde, Parker, Twain, you know ...

25. I'm thankful for God. I still struggle with understanding all God is, but I never doubt that God has created us to love one another, to love the world around us, to constantly learn and explore and touch and experience.

26. I'm thankful that I , somehow, despite everything, despite momentary and instant reactions, am, at the end of the day, a very fair person.

27. I'm thankful that, again, somehow, I appreciate people for who they are and what they've experienced and even who they can be; but mostly, I'm thankful that they are who they are.

28. I'm thankful to every person who has listened to my questions and has offered me a new way of thinking about something.

29. I'm thankful for the communicators I've met through the United Methodist connection because they are so quick to offer their support, their help and their faith.

30. I'm thankful for my five senses, that allow me to feel, taste, touch, experience, hear and see the beauty of all of God's creations.

Finally, I'm thankful that this list made me really think about gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving.