Today is Thanksgiving. It’s a day devoted to giving thanks for all that you have, for not wishing for the things you don’t have, a day to be happy with exactly what is.

This has been a bad month for me. I’m not going to go into details, although I’d like to. It’s important to keep some things private. I am writing though, because as I process the pain I am feeling, I am simultaneously aware that today is about giving thanks and I have thanks to give.

Because today is about not wishing for what you don’t have, but being supremely happy with what you do have.

And just look at what I have.

My beautiful, perfect, sometimes drive-me-crazy best friends. I am genuinely so thankful for them. For my gift(s). For children that I’ve longed for my entire life. Children that many people can’t have. A friend of mine said recently, in an effort to cheer me up, that getting older means you begin to be thankful and aware of what you have instead of unhappy and unsatisfied with what you don’t have. I guess it has something to do with perspective-knowing that you won’t live forever (something I felt certain of when I was in my 20’s). You learn to be appreciative of what the world has granted you. And I have been granted so very much.

Ok then.

Today I will focus on what is here. What I have been given. What I have been granted. And I will focus on my family, my parents, my children, my husband, my friends, my sweet loving dogs who kiss me and wag no matter what kind of a day they have had. I am thankful for a home and a warm bed and a hot shower and a full tummy. I am thankful for the trees flashing yellows and oranges and browns that blend together into a daily awe-inspiring mural. I am thankful for the air in my lungs and for the sky up above. I am thankful for life.

I am thankful for those of you who continue to read my blog 🙂

My life is full. My heart is fuller.

Thank you.