I Am Thankful

Every day you should be thankful. Every day you should take the time to remind yourself of all that you have, all that you are blessed with. The clothes on your back, the food on your table, the friends and family who love you for who you are (and sometimes, despite who you are). But we rarely ever do this. We rarely ever have the time.

Day to day life gets in the way of so many things, but isn't it sort of sad that we allow it to get in the way of remembering where we've been and how far we've come? All that you have accomplished? All that you are surrounded with that you typically take for granted now that it is here?

I'm not pretending that I'm any better than the rest of us. I am just as guilty - sometimes more so - than everyone else for taking life for granted. Which is why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I know I should be reminding myself of all I have every day, but since I don't, I'm glad to have a day that smacks me in the face and says, "Hey you! Take a breath and remember!"

I am thankful for so many things. Some big, some small. The typical, and the not-so-typical.

I am thankful that I have a husband who still loves me after all these years. I am thankful that I still love him! I am thankful for a beautiful, intelligent, funny child and all of his moods that create who he is. I am thankful for having a home, but also for the home that I have being so warm, the yard so big, the furniture so comfy, the neighbors likeable. I am thankful that I live in a city that I adore and that my son is attending this city's schools. I am thankful for my sister and brother-in-law, my nieces and nephew, my brother and sister-in-law, my mother, my father and step-mother. I am thankful for my husband's family. I am thankful for my dog. I am thankful for having clothes that are not too small and for finally having bought some socks that have no holes. I am thankful for my extended family, as crazy as they may be. I am thankful for my painful past, for all the hurts that made me work just that much harder to get to where I am, the hurts that still push me to become better, smarter, stronger. Heartbreak? I'm even thankful for that.

I am thankful for every person who has ever loved me, and every person who has ever hated me. I am thankful for the expectations of these people, so that I could either prove or disprove them wrong. (I love doing something people think I can't or won't.)

I am thankful for my computer and my ability to type. I am thankful for my schooling and for my awesome job and understanding boss. I am thankful for being fired so many years ago, as embarrassing as it was. I am thankful that at one point, I had nothing at all, so that today I can appreciate all that I have even more than I did before my fall.

I judge and I condemn, I am nasty and hurtful, and sometimes - more often than I'd like - I see the glass as half-empty. I don't trust many people and I expect the worse most of the time. I look for the lies in the truth and I am suspicious when there is no reason to be. I am kind and forgiving, I am funny and friendly. I look at too many situations with blind eyes and I see beauty where no beauty can be. I am complicated and frustrating. I am human.

And I am thankful.