Grateful

In this season of Thanksgiving, with all the negatives going on around us, it can be hard to find what we should be grateful for.  The world seems to be in such a bad place these days...the pandemic, natural disasters, hate-filled people, etc.  It is sometimes so hard to find something good to hold onto .  Something that helps us to believe that it will get better if we just hang on.

There is nothing I can do to change the state of the world we live in but there is something I can do about the small part that I live in.  So I look to what is good in my small world, what I am grateful for and that which I will keep close to my heart as I wait for the rest of the world to catch up, if ever.

I am grateful for...

The steadfast love and unending support of my God, no matter what kind of person I have been on any given day.  Knowing He has a plan for me and even though I do not know what that plan is, I am confident He will do what is best for me.

Close to 50 years with a man who can still make me laugh, surprise me, comfort me and fill my heart with the same passionate love from that first date so many years ago.  

A 70 years life filled with memories both good and bad.  Good memories to remember and share.  Bad memories to learn from and not repeat, if possible.

Seeing my sons become the men I knew they would be. With kind and loving hearts, courage to chase their dreams, strength to stand up for what is right and the knowledge that the world does not revolve around them but in what they do for others.

My sons having good women in their lives who love them almost as much as their mother does.  Women who have become my daughters not by blood but by love.

Parents who taught me about romantic love between soul mates, the strength of a unified family who can get through any adversity and the belief that it is what is inside a person that is most important.  Although I miss both of them very much, I am grateful for the years I had with them.

For the small things in life--hearing the coo of the morning doves who roost in my lilac bush, watching the mares (or "the girls" as I call them) graze in the field, the smell of freshly mowed grass, the taste of hot orange tea in my nanny's teacup on a rainy morning, the touch of my husband's hand when we are out for a walk, the purr of my cat as he snuggles on my lap.

Good food on the table, a roof over our heads, a comfortable secure retirement life even in this year of high prices and supply shortages.

Time to pursue those things we enjoy without worrying about work schedules, projects, etc.

Books that you hold in your hands, turn the pages and appreciate the beauty of how they look; music of all genres that lift you up or calms you down and art in all mediums that makes you wish you had just a small percentage of the talent the artists have.

Being a cat mom and a dog & cat grandma.  I may not have human grandchildren but I can still be a doting grandma to the fur babies.

Being able to appreciate the positives in life and a continued belief in the goodness of people.