Count Your Many Blessings

I'm forgoing Weird News Wednesday in favor of listing things I am thankful for. I wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope you each take time to reflect upon the many blessings in your lives.

I'm thankful for:
1. Three beautiful, bright, healthy kids.
2. Plenty of food to eat.
3. Clothes on my back.
4. A much more than adequate house to live in.
5. Access to doctors and medicine when any of us is sick.
6. The right to worship freely.
7. The right to say what I think about my government be it good, bad, or indifferent.
8. The right to vote without fear of intimidation (even if the choices tend to be awful).
9. Friends and family who will laugh with me.
10. Friends and family who will cry with me.
11. Friends and family who will back me up when I am right.
12. Friends and family who will tell me when I am wrong.
13. Hugs.
14. Kisses.
15. The 3 little hand squeezes that mean 'I love you' Isaac will exchange with me.
16. The sparkle in his eye when he tells a joke that makes people laugh.
17. Watching him hunched over a drawing he is working on.
18. Seeing him race around the yard fighting off imaginary armies.
19. The sparkle in Calypso's eyes when she makes beautiful music.
20. Hearing her make music.
21. The compassion she shows to people.
22. The sparkle in Diana's eyes when she marches in band.
23. The maturity she displays in dealing with peer pressure.
24. The way she works with a friend's autistic son in such a way as to make them thankful for her.
25. The sparkle in my husband's eye when he smiles.
26. That he has a job that provides well for us.
27. What a hard worker he is.
28. That I have the chance to be back in school.
29. Books and libraries.
30. Freedom of conscience.
31. People who make me think.
32. People who make me laugh.
33. People who encourage my dreams.
34. People who challenge me to be a better person.
35. Being able to meet so many different people through this format. Who'da thunk it?
36. That my back feels a whole lot better than this time last year and I am not being threatend with surgery anymore.
37. Doctors and therapists who helped me avoid surgery and get strong again.
38. The way my kids were usually helpful and sensitive when I was in the most pain.
39. Music.
40. Art.
41. Poetry.
42. The people who create music, art, and poetry.
43. Trees.....the music of wind in the branches, the art of their form, that no poem is as lovely as a tree.
44. The big rope swing in a tree in our yard.
45. Feeling like a kid when I swing on it.

Ok, I could go on. Instead, I hope you wiil. We have so much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.