Thankful Everyday

"Don't wait until the fourth Thursday in November to sit with family and friends and to give thanks.  Make everyday a day of Thanksgiving." ~Charmaine J. Ford~

What are you thankful for?  What do you whisper a word of thanks about before you close your eyes at night?  What gets you out of bed each morning, eager to work to be worthy of or to take care of?  If your answer is nothing, I want to challenge you to change it.  

That's not just a topical quote up there; I agree with Charmaine's words.  It's a sentiment I've had for years on the subject of friends, family, and being thankful for this precious life we've been given. 

I'll never forget the night that I in the middle of a severe depression, grieving over a painful loss and I called home not searching for comfort, but just for some distraction from the numbness that had settled in over my heart.  The last thing my mother said to me was, "what if you woke up with tomorrow only what you thanked God for tonight?"

Her words shook me.  I hung up the phone, stunned for a moment at how wrapped up in my problems I'd become.  In doing so I had completely forgotten how many good things there were in my life too. I immediately dropped to my knees and thanked God for all the things that my depression had kept me from seeing and appreciating.  I'll never forget that night, because the next morning, when I woke up, everything was gone.  Life as I knew it, and had finally remembered to appreciate it, was gone. 

I've devoted a number of posts to that not so distant time in my life when I lost it, when I was lost, but loss is only permanently tragic if we cannot turn it around and gain some wisdom from it.  My story is not unique, not in the least.  Grief and loss are eventually part of everyone's story.  Because that, my dear friends, as I've come to know so well, is how life goes.  Everything we are given is only for a season: family, friends, youth and health--everything breaks, everything fades, nothing lasts.

Please don't think I'm saying all this to try and bring you down, quite the contrary.  I say all this to lift you up to that place where, in knowing the impermanence of all things you'll remember to stop and be thankful not just one day a year, or even one day a week, but every single day, because each day, each moment, and each person in this life is a gift...there's even a lesson to be learned from the really annoying people.  

So, how about it, what are you thankful for, not just today, but everyday?  Comment below :)

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