Gratitude

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

              --Thornton Wilder

I don't know if everyone is like this, but each day I have a different level of motivation and a different mood.  Some days I wake up ready to face the world and interact with my life.  But, then there are others when I'm more apt to lay in bed and sulk about things in my life that aren't going my way.  And it's true, there are a number of things about my life right now that are not ideal and that I would change if I could.  It's just sad that it's easier to write when those things are beating down hard on me.  When life is tough, I want to just GET IT OUT; but when it's good, I want to keep it in.  I'm really not an eternal pessimist, it's just easier to complain that it is to praise in writing.

Today is going to be different.  Today I want to think on those things that I hold as treasures in heart.  I want to share some of the beauties in my life.  Most of them are small, but it's the small things that matter most.

• a small hand touching mine
• my "hug of the day" when Jeff comes home
• listening
• having family close enough to walk to
• this house and the story behind it
• paint and colors
• red leaves
• the dimples in both my boy's cheeks
• making it
• taking time away from my career to do things that matter to me
• pillows
• peppermint mocha
• technology and the fun in figuring it out
• words
• emotions
• lavender baby lotion
• first steps
• being needed
• down comforter and a cold room
• bare feet
• memories
• crisp air
• the smells of each season
• being good at a lot of different things
• being thanked for doing them
• my church
• my job--which happens to be at my church
• friends that call and call again when I don't call them back
• the honesty of children
• great books
• freedom
• baby talk
• food and always learning new ways to make it
• Christmas
• a glass of wine
• the high feeling  you get after exercising
• baby soft skin
• giggling and remembering how to be silly
• reusable shopping bags and compact florescent bulbs
• a fire in the fireplace
• blue-eyes, sky, water, my kitchen
• being able to type instead of talk