For this, I am thankful.

This year I wanted to put down in writing what I am thankful for. I have a very long list but bear with me.



This year I am thankful for many things, I have a life that some people can only dream about and even on days where I think it's hard just to breathe, I know someone else out there would love to have my problems and someone is invariably envious of my entire life and being.



I'll begin with my health. I am thankful that I don't have any life threatening illnesses or injuries. I have never lost a limb or had to sacrifice something I love due to something health related. My life is not threatened in any way when I wake up in the morning and I have never heard a doctor tell me how long I have to live. For this I am thankful.



I am uncomprehendingly grateful for my family. I have a mother who is not afraid to push me back onto the right path when I go astray, or go to bat for me when I am being wronged. She taught me how to be a decent human being and she loves me. I have a father who didn't have to be. He chose to be my Dad, the man who loves me to the end of the earth and invariably answers any request with "Did you ask your mother?" He is the one I can cry to or scream my lungs out at and he is still there, steady as a rock, to forgive me. I have my quirky and yet lovable aunts and uncles, my confidants. They are the people I can openly tell everything to and know without fail that they will tell no one unless I am in danger of hurting myself or others. They are my bestfriends. Finally I have my grandparents. They are my listeners, my teachers and my friends. When no one else will stand by me, they will. Right or wrong, they believe in me and believe that I am worth something. They applaud even my minor victories and give standing ovations to major ones. They teach me life lessons in wisdom and patience. My siblings, who tell me their secrets and the funniest jokes. They are the people I hate and love the most. Sometimes, I wish they were never there but without them my life would be totally empty. I am also thankful for my sister, Paige, who has given me the chance to know her after so many years apart. For this, I am thankful.



I am grateful for my boyfriend. The man who is tolerant of my weirdness on good days and accepting of my temper on bad ones. The man who, I believe, would fight for me and always has my back. He is the person I can lean on the most. I love him even when I hate him and he loves me even when he hates me. I am grateful I am not alone and for his help through everything. I may hate it, but I am thankful for his realism, his unchanging steadyness and his, sometimes boring, but dependable personality. For this, I am thankful.



The people who have hurt me and love me the most, my friends. The people I would be lost without. You are the ones I can trust not to reveal my bad habits or tease me about my looks. They are the ones who would jump into a bar fight with me, just so I did taste defeat alone. My friends are the people who folllow me home from bars when I am mad, screaming at me the whole way that they love me and are sorry. The people who will get in the shower with me and we laugh totally comfortable. Or the people that make me the best man at their surprise weddings and of course the people who I've never met, but that still care about me enough to listen to my unending rants. My friends are the people who make mistakes and I forgive them for it, or the people that I hurt who forgive me for it. They are my soulmates. For this, I am thankful.



I am thankful for the abundance of food, shelter and material things in my life. I have more than a lot of people do and I have more than some people could dream of. I am painfully aware that there are people who would be happy just to have a roof over there head or to not have to rummage through dumpsters for food. I have an excess of things in my life that have no purpose but entertainment and pleasure. I am grateful that fate has seen fit to let me live a life of relative comfort. While it may not be perfect or luxurious, for this, I am thankful.



Finally, I am thankful for my mind and soul, for my ability to be aware of all the things I have in my life to be thankful for and my ability to be thankful for them. I am able to feel love, hate, pain, pleasure and every other emotion because of these things. While sometimes thinking about something can hurt my soul, or my soul may cause me to feel immeasurable pain or anger, I am given great comfort knowing that everything it feels or thinks is what makes me, me. These are the things that gives me all my abilities and works 24/7 or the thing that lets me experience life with emotion and feeling to the fullest capacity. For this, I am grateful.





Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

the courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference.



Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.
Amen.

~ Reinhold Niebuhr



Happy thanksgiving all.... Hope you have plenty to be grateful for.