Grateful is an Understatement

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rarely am I without words. When I try to put a name to all of the things that I am grateful for, my mind tends to black out with overpopulation. That's an easy way out, though, so here I go. Just a drop in the bucket.

I find myself most frequently grateful for Erick. Sappy, but true. There are no words to describe how grateful I am for the fact that when he isn't home, I know he wants to be. That's not to say that there aren't times that he leaves to have fun or work on relationship with friends. At those times, we're both grateful for other reasons. But, even then, I know that he is happiest when with his family, and for that I am so very appreciative.

I'm so glad that he and I tend to agree on politics, religion, music and TV shows. On the former two, we have enough opinions that differ to make for good discussion and constant learning. Because if we agreed about everything all of the time, I wouldn't be very grateful at all. Then I'd have to go exclusively elsewhere for all of my heated discussion, and that just isn't any fun.

There are many, many more things about Erick for which I'm grateful, but I'll save those for another day.

As I listened to Sophia scream for the first twenty minutes of her "nap," I realized just how grateful I am that she still naps. That's all I'll say about that one since it may be over anyway.

But I am incredibly thankful for the fact that when I am away from Sophia, even on a rough week, I miss her. I'm grateful, mind you, for the opportunities I have to get away, but it is nice to know that I always look forward to being home. Feeling her ever longer arms wrapped around my neck. Nothing makes me more grateful for those moments than the ones I have away.

Sophia feels loved, and for that I am so thankful.

I'm grateful for modern conveniences. There's no denying it. That's all I need to say about that, I think. You know what I mean, and if you don't, I don't want to rub it in...

Maybe more than anything in my life, I am grateful that I am known. That there are people around me who care enough to pause when I pause - just to see what it is that distracted me. Because even if they weren't distracted, they know me better after the experience. I love that there are people who will listen to me ramble for seemingly hours on the finer points of theology or society or pets or furniture even when I don't have something important to say. I'm thankful for people who love me in spite of my sometimes oblivious and thoughtless ways. I work hard to be thoughtful, and occasionally I'm successful. But the people who know me love me even when I'm not. That is incredibly liberating. I think I'm grateful for the freedom to be myself. I am, on most days, entirely comfortable in my skin. That is a beautiful thing. That is not to say that I don't work hard at improving myself. I'm not perfect, nor do I strive for perfection. Most of what I work toward is to more perfectly love others, allowing them to be free and comfortable in their imperfections. I thank my God for taking pleasure in my imperfections as much as he enjoys my few accomplishments.

Happy Thanksgiving.