Thankful Thursday*

* written on a Sunday

 a garden in a pot outside a local museum

Yesterday I was reminded by a dear friend that I haven't done the whole Thankful Thursday thing in a long time. She was right. I've been negligent. So on this Sunday evening, I will do some thanks giving.

I am thankful for:

1. friends who remind me to be thankful. I've been a little cranky here on the blog lately. Sorting through a lot of painful truths. Focusing on negative influences in my life, tough decisions I've had to make, and not remembering how wildly blessed and deeply loved I am.

2. friends who reach out to me and reconnect after an extended period of silence. It is always good to be remembered. It is even better to be told that I am being remembered.

     2b. friends who don't reach out to me. sometimes silence is better for all involved.

3. blueberries. I LOVE blueberries.

4. my journal. I've been filling lots and lots of pages lately with many thoughts, questions, discoveries, resolutions, declarations, and soaking it with many tears.

5. air conditioning and ceiling fans. Summer in the south is no joke!

6. Horny Toad dresses. I've got four of them - and I wear them often.

isn't it cute?

7. banana daiquiris made with overripe bananas.

8. solitude in my study, lying flat on the floor, thinking, praying, crying, making plans, ditching other plans, pondering all that is yet to come.

9. seeing all the school supplies on display at Target. Because I have stocked up so excessively in years gone by, I don't need buy much this year, but I love looking at all the composition notebooks, pens, crayons, calculators, highlighters, erasers, pencils, and thinking back on how much I loved going back to school, the classes, my friends, the teachers, the whole shebang. I was a card-carrying geek (I sometimes made cards that I carried with me - schedules, assignments, notes for teachers, goals, etc.) during all my years of schooling - from kindergarten all the way up to completing my master's degree.

10. safety during and after all the terrible storms that have passed through the south and through our own neighborhood. This is an image of the house across the street from us after a rather furious deluge a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately no one was hurt - and despite all visible evidence to the contrary, the house wasn't badly damaged.

11. twenty years of matrimony (or is it martyrimony???!!!) Steve and I celebrated our anniversary at the Westglow Resort and Spa in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. While awaiting my first massage there, I sat down in a lounge chair next to Gloria Steinem! What an honor and a privilege to meet her and her gorgeous posse of powerful and thoughtful and gifted women. They were all funny, warm, welcoming, and seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly.

sitting in the meditation lounge at the spa

sitting on the side porch before lunch

12. an upcoming week-long silent retreat at a Jesuit spirituality center up in Pennsylvania. I will be swallowed down into 23 hours of silence every day except for one hour a day when I will speak to a spiritual director. I cannot wait!!!


Thanks be to God.