on being thankful

Thankfulness is a state of mind that often drifts too far down the consciousness bar. Thanksgiving is one of those days that make us stop and think about what we are thankful for. We get spun around by our everyday lives and forget to look around, count our blessings, view the world a new, or look at the people you care about and say Thank YOU, or I’m Sorry, or I appreciate you. I’m not sure it’s always forgetfulness as much as that we just don’t always take the time to say these things out loud. I know I think them a lot. I look at a friend and I want to say…I really love you, or I miss you, or I just want to thank you for everything that you bring to my life, but I just don’t say it out loud, at least not often enough.

This is something J and I have always been conscious of in our relationship – of expressing our thankfulness and appreciation for and of each other. We thank each other daily for even the little things…thank you for picking up, thank you for washing the dishes, taking the trash out and so on. It’s not to say we don’t get on each other’s nerves, because we do. At times I find myself even thankful for the familiarity of all her annoying habits. I hope she feels the same. There is something comforting in these familiar annoyances. There is a certainty to them; the same as the certainty of her love for me, her unquestionable, unyielding love for me.

So top of my list of what I am thankful for is J. I am thankful for my family and friends and not just the ones that I get to see all the time, but also the ones I rarely get to see, and even some of the ones that don’t want to see me, or the ones I don’t want to see (because in both cases, I am thankful for what we once had). I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love, for this beautiful earth on which we live, for the kindness of strangers that I witness nearly every day and for all the blessing in my life too many to tell.

"If the only prayer you ever say in your life is thank you, it will be enough." - Meister Eckhart