Thankful

Given the season, I've been thinking alot lately about what I am thankful for... so I decided to compile a list. However, I didn't want it to be your standard thanksgiving list - I wanted it to be real, tangible - the things that I am thankful for on a daily basis... those things that make me who I am and make my life a more enjoyable space to occupy. So, I will say upfront that I am most assuredly thankful for my family - all of you - and the incredible heritage and love I've received as a result of being born in your midst. I am also thankful for health, a roof over my head and the fact that all of my needs on the base of maslow's pyramid are filled. Now that those are out of the way, here are some more specific things for which I will be giving thanks this season:



1. My girlfriends. The women in my life who are as much family to me as my own - who love me, accept me, believe that I possess goodness and potential when I don't believe it myself, share stories with me about dating, marriage, becoming pregnant, carrying and birthing children, then raising them. Women who talk about sticking with your husband when you feel tired and selfish, overindulge in chocolate and tell you that they know exactly what you're going through. These women who walk a road similar to mine every day and encourage me to keep my mindset positive and my feet on a straight path. These are the people who make the journey a more bright and bearable one - I could not make it without them. John Donne said 'no man is an island' - that is certainly true of women. This one in particular. I give thanks for all of my girlfriends at every stage in life, and most certainly for those I am blessed with today - you know who you are :).


2. Music. Nothing makes any mundane task or activity a celebration like a song... put on some Vanilla Ice, Trisha Yearwood, or Josh Groban and suddenly doing dishes turns into a dance in the kitchen, a walk into the past or a moment of relaxation. I really love music's uncanny ability to make me 'remember when.' There is no quicker way to be transported to the nostalgia of 10, 15 or 21 again than to hear a particular song - for me, life seems to be a montage of events played out to the music of its era. Since I am thankful for the wonderful years that have made up my past, I am also grateful for the music that helps me preserve and recall it.



3. My children. Yes, I know I covered them in the opening paragraph, but I don't mean that I'm thankful in the traditional way - which I am, of course, happy that they are healthy, intelligent, adorable, hilarious, wonderful children - but I am also thankful for what they have done to me. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that before they were born I was a fairly self-involved, self-important person without much perspective. Each and every day, the exhausting, exhilarating task of raising small children on a full time basis breaks off a little bit more of the person I used to be and shapes me into the person I need to be. They have taught me mercilessly about strength of spirit, confidence, empathy, patience, tolerance, love, selflessness, did i say 'patience', and trust, and they have offered me invaluable insight into what in life is really important - which turns out not to be some of the things I used to think at all. So, while being broken on a daily basis is not always a fun thing, I am grateful to my children for relentlessly striving to make me a better person :).



4. Aromas. Scent has the same nostalgic effects as music for me... I think of my old boyfriend Doug anytime I smell Aspen cologne, I think of the time that Chris and I began to date if I catch the drift of CK1, the scent of the doughnuts I grew up on bring back memories of relatives who have since passed away, when I smell a fresh batch of icing I am taken back to my childhood kitchen where my mom used to let me squeeze bites of icing out of bags... I even found a pacifier the other day that smelled exactly like my baby and made a silent wish that the scent would never fade. And, aside from the nostalgic effects of scent, let me also say that nothing makes me happier than the smell of anything baking in the oven - pie, brownies, cookies... enough said.

5. A Hot Husband. Let me be clear here - I am not saying that I am thankful for my husband (which, of course, I am), I am specifically saying that I am grateful to have a husband who is so darn good-looking. A lot of women are blessed with good husbands like mine - men who are kind, thoughtful, helpful, supportive, mindful of their needs - but not all of them are so lucky as to have those qualities wrapped up in a pretty, broad-shouldered, 6 1/2 foot tall, green-eyed package (if you are reading this, of course I think your husband is hot, too). I am grateful that everyday I get to wake up to and live with a man who seems to get better looking the longer we are together... would I still love him if he somehow woke up a disfigured/unrecognizable version of himself? Of course I would, so don't be too quick to think me shallow - I am just someone who appreciates beauty... especially in men. ;)

There are alot of other things that I am thankful for, but they will have to wait until later... I have a 1.5 year old pulling at my legs with a pacifier hanging out of his mouth saying, "mom-mae, mom-mae!" Time to go be a better person....