Thankful

I read a great comment on a blog today about the balance between counting our blessings and making noise/taking action in the face of injustice. She pointed out the truth that if women hadn’t made a ruckus, we might still be counting our blessings and unable to vote!  I think that reader had it right. I believe it’s a good thing, always and everywhere, to count our blessings. Gratitude is a powerful state of awareness and a magical state of being. And Lord… may my prayers of gratitude today lift me up, sustain me and give me strength to fight the good fight when that is what is called for.

so…these are a few of the things that I love today…

Technology: Oh how do I love my satellite dish and all that it brings into my living room. Lately, I am really hooked on the sermons of a preacher I found on one of the Christian networks awhile back.  He preaches at a church in Singapore of all things!  So, here I am in So-Cal getting blessed by the words of a man who lives on the other side of the world. Cool.  I am thankful for the internet which allows me to read about so many great and inspiring people; bloggers, writers, artists, thinkers, journalists, activists. What a blessing to be able to know of all these people and their work. Internet phone cards so I can communicate cheaply with my sweetheart, especially as we are waiting for Costa Rica to get with it and hook up communications with outside phone companies.  And finally, a shout out to my beloved Tour. Kiss kiss to my new phone, even if she is smarter than I am.

People: My friends. Each one brings a special gift; insight, clarity, compassion, thoughtfulness, generosity, prayerfulness… there would be no life worth having without the love of my girls. My therapists and doctors, current and past, without whom I would not be here  to tell my story. The generosity of people who have looked after me while traveling, the friendly faces at my neighborhood coffee place, pastors who have unpacked the words in our book in ways that have forever changed the way I go about living in the world.  I am thankful for the man in my life whom I love and who loves me without reservation. People who are working to care for the world’s poor, rescuing girls caught in the sex trade industry, ministering to the sick and incarcerated.  Parents raising children and step-children. Praise God for all of them.

Stuff:  An apartment I love.  A job that I don’t, but that provides me both the time and money to support my alternate life in Central America. Vietnamese coffees, taco trucks, pens and notebooks, Simple shoes and my cozy quilt from Anthropologie.

I have a million things to count as blessings…each day brings new things to appreciate. Everyday things like a roof over my head and food to eat, an accident avoided.  Or sometimes a more exceptional experience…like the joy of sitting in a Costa Rican thunderstorm, sensing God’s grace and love pouring out on me, felt as clearly and as real to me as the actual rain.  May I remember to pay attention to these things and give thanks to the one who makes it all possible.