Thankful Thursday

It has been a very long time since I have expressed my gratitude in a post.
Here goes...

* I am grateful for this six or seven-year-old laptop that keeps me connected to the internet and gives me a private and safe place to store my photos and documents.

* I am grateful for the external hard drive where I back up all the things I have on this laptop. After all, it's not going to last forever. (But it has lasted longer than our two-year-old Mac - which had to have its hard drive replaced earlier this week! So much for my naive belief about Macs not having major problems like PCs... )

* I am grateful for the study in which I am sitting, a small and sacred space where I can sit quietly surrounded by my books and my journals, and filled with my questions, dreams, and thoughts.

* I am grateful for the big red couch in the living room downstairs. I get to climb into its cozy lap every morning when the children and I start our homeschooling day.

* I am grateful for the previous owners of this house who, upon moving out seven years ago, left their extra refrigerator for us in the garage.

* I am grateful for the refrigerator and freezer we have in our kitchen. The extra one in the garage died this week, and we had to transfer its contents into the kitchen.

* I am enormously grateful for all the food we have in this house and in our bellies, perishable and non-perishable.

* I am grateful for indoor plumbing and running water and electricity and windows that open and close and brick walls and doors that close and lock and grass and trees and birds and falling leaves and cloudy skies and starry nights and the full moon.

* What else am I grateful for today?

- for easy and quick access to medical help.
- for the doctor who put the two stitches in my finger last week.
- for my family's help around the house when I was unable to do my usual tasks.
- for the health and strength and happiness we share as a family

- for our extended family, those we are in contact with and those we have fallen out of contact with. (I do love you still and pray often that you and those you love are well. I pray that your daughter's wedding goes well and that she is tremendously happy in her married life.)
- for friends, far and wide, who have changed my life in profound ways and whose lives I have influenced as well. You will never know how much I love you - and miss you.

- for our two functioning automobiles.
- for the fact that our roof isn't leaking during these days of heavy rain.

- for journals and markers and magazines and scissors and glue dots and stickers
- for books and websites that encourage me to live fully, deeply, with joy, with gusto, without apology, without reservation, without rancor, without resentment.
- for a camera that captures mostly ordinary and occasionally extraordinary moments and places in my life.
- for the many albums that hold those photos, my memories, and great joy within their covers.

- I am grateful for art and music and poetry and novels and non-fiction books too. I am grateful for coffee and tea and ice water and soy milk and orange peach mango drinks from Trader Joe's. I am grateful for rosemary olive oil bagels with butter and an egg on them. I am grateful for thick socks and sweatpants and heavy robes and soft pillows and down comforters. I am grateful for Sweet Mint Lifesavers and Burt's Bees lip balm sticks and Kleenex and Dr. Bronner's soap and Clean Day laundry detergent and Harris Teeter fresh-baked whole wheat bread.

- I am grateful for my neighbor with her pink raincoat and pink and white umbrella, outside chasing her two sons who I would imagine insisted on riding their bikes and scooters in the rain. She has no idea how beautiful she is and how much her smile lights up my day every time I see her.

- I am grateful to be alive and happy and healthy and stitched together and held together and loved and even liked on this cloudy Thursday afternoon way down south in Charlotte, North Carolina.

*** We are tremendously blessed.
And I am deeply grateful.
Thanks be to God.