Practice makes perfect....not really...practice is practice.

I thought writing about gratitude would be easier....because each day I can come up with a nice list of what I am grateful for.....but I am learning to appreciate the discipline of gratitude.  I'm learning to move beyond the elementary list of thankfuls (family, food, shelter, life, health) into some more subtle and in-between the crevices kinds of gratitude.  It takes discipline.  Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for my family, for food, shelter, life health.....but to be honest.....

I am gut-wrenchingly grateful that I have a husband.  I interact with single moms every day and their work is so much harder than mine.  If I have had enough of my work as a parent, I can just tell Roger I'm done for the day and no matter what he is doing or how tired he is, he will cowboy up and finish the parenting day.  I am so, so grateful to be married to him.  I would be a terrible single mom.  I am also grateful to know so many mothers who do this great and hard work alone.....may God bless you every single day, mamas, to do this hard work. 

I am a foodie....and I am so grateful to get to experience food.  Not just eat it, but think about it, plan meals, shop in a clean grocery store, create dishes that I enjoy making and serving.....I am so grateful for food.

I am grateful for this home.  It's not fancy.  It's not even decorated very well.  Confession:  we still have furniture and pictures hanging that were wedding gifts....from 1996.  I don't even care.  They tell our story and they mean something to me.  I am grateful that we care more about our story than our fashion. 

I am grateful for life.  That one stands alone.  Daily I learn of deaths all around me and all the ways I could die each day.  Nothing is a given.  We don't get to keep people....we can keep fine china and heirlooms and memories, but not people.  We are fleeting here on Earth.....life is precious.

Health....I am in this 50's season of life and let me just say.....it is a weird mix of brutal and beautiful.  Lots of days I just don't feel so well.   Recently I have faced some fears about not feeling well and I did some rather big and scary tests, like a colon screen, a mamogram, a heart monitor evaluation.....not fun.  Not fun at all.  I am grateful for good results for these tests.....and lots of opportunities to work to feel better.  I did a workout yesterday and today and I can hardly move I'm so stiff and sore.....but it speaks to my gratitude for health to continue on this path.  I'm hoping to do it again tomorrow.....

So there it is....today's practice of gratitude.  Thanks for following along.  

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