Thanks Giving

I thank my God every time I remember you.
Phil 1:3

It is obviously easy to wax poetically about the pending holiday, to point out the things for which one should be grateful. To say how it is absolutely essential that we, as humans, look for the good in all things and ponder the faithfulness of God.

My Aunt, who has had her own incredible life, wrote this simple line in my first entry:

You have always been a blessed child.

On every level she is right. I have been blessed and richly loved. My life has been oddly blessed and full of wonder that seems rather sublime. When viewed from a distance people often wonder how I have made it at all. But not me. Many call me religious but I call myself spiritual.

I once made mention to the fact that I have sampled from the tables of many structured religions and have actually liked a few of them. I have had seconds from one or two organized churches. Two even list me as a member; one in the past and one right now......My name can be found in the registers. But I have tasted almost every flavor of organized faith offered to mankind because I have been seeking God's face since I first sensed His presence. Beginning with that first time, when I was a toddler and witnessed the leaves blowing in the trees at the lake.

A couple of you will be appalled by the knowledge that I did a research paper at ASU on the subject of Wicca for two reasons, one was because my professor insisted we do a topic we knew nothing about and two was all the other topics she had listed I had already done papers on. She didn't want to read a bunch of papers about the same things every year so this is how she handled her boredom. I figure you will be shocked because I found the information interesting and entertaining... and I got an A.

But this entry isn't about my college paper or my religious sampler platters...It is about thankfulness and life's surprises. Tomorrow is a day to celebrate gratefulness. A special day set aside each year to say thank you for all that is and those of us that choose to thank God for our good fortune look upward with certain grace.

I cry every year at Thanksgiving.

Not because I am a weepy woman, quiet the opposite is true. I cry in private.

But because every November twenty fifth, since 1997, marks one more year that God decided I could live another 365 days.

What a glorious ride it has been.

What wonders I have seen.

I have seen my first real autumns, where tree blaze in golden leaves.

I have lived thru my first real snow storms and survived MINUS zero weather.

I buried the first man I really loved.

I found another man I love even more.

I rediscovered my love of writing.

I found my true purpose.

I know where I am going.

I have hope.

I am thankful I have more than enough.

May God bless and keep you.