Saying Thanks…
and Other Morning Musings.

It’s Canadian Thanksgivings this weekend, and I sit here this morning, coffee nearby, doing a little computer work before getting into the kitchen to prepare for the crowd that is coming over later today…and I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude for all that I am blessed with.

I look at my beautiful little dog sleeping on his doggie couch, and I am grateful for his unending enthusiasm for life. I watched him race across the room yesterday playing gleefully with a stuffed kangaroo I gave him, delighting in it.

It made me wonder when I last did that? When did I run through a pile of dead leaves just to hear them crunch? When did I find rocks so fascinating that I had to pick them up?

When did I stop and just pay attention?

I look at the gorgeous table decoration pictured above that was gifted to me after church yesterday by a woman who designs flower arrangements, and did so to decorate the church that morning. “You take this home”, she insisted, “and enjoy it!” A generous gift of colour and talent shared.

I look at the mess of ingredients piled on the kitchen counter…jars of tomato sauce, packages of gluten-free lasagna noodles, vegetables and jars of olives…packages of cheese, bottles of wine…and I think wow…we are so privileged to have such abundance.

I think of the faces of the 14 or so others coming over later on today…younger children and adult children and their friends, parents, cousins…and I am grateful for the space in which to meet, the time set aside to gather together and enjoy each others’ company, and the resources to be able to feed people delicious food.

Saying thanks is something I try to do more than just once a year.

I heard recently that some daycare programs use the term: Have an Attitude of Gratitude with their young charges, and I think that’s how we can change the world.

Seriously!

There are so many things to be grateful for if we’d just stop for a few moments each day, and look around us. If we’d think back at the end of each day and remember moments where we experienced things to be thankful for.

There is so much…too much…and once a year isn’t enough!

That smile from the stranger on the street…

the extra care taken with making my sandwich order at the deli…

a phone call from a friend I haven’t talked to in a while…

a huge hug from a snuggly step-daughter…

a lick on my hand from a sweet puppy…

a text from my eldest child just saying hi…

breakfast made for me by my husband as I am late for a meeting…

the sunlight through a fall tree making it glow like fire…

the stunning blue-speckly bird in the feeder outside my window…

There is never an end to things to be grateful for, and yet I forget.

I forget to say thanks…to acknowledge how privileged I am to even be here…because just being here is a privilege.

Life isn’t always pretty. Don’t I know that well!

It’s often ugly, and hard, and pain-filled…and that’s how it is. No one promised anything otherwise…there are no guarantees of happy endings. I’m not all “Pollyanna” about it either…but I am optimistic.

Yes, the planet is in trouble. Yes the Ebola crisis is terrifying. Yes, there is violence and horror and rotten stuff going on right this very second.

And yet, I firmly believe that despite the hard and awful stuff, there is still beauty to appreciate, there are trees to stand and gape at in all their fall glory, there is music to makes my heart sing, there ARE people (and all sorts of other creatures) with huge and tender hearts, and there is so much that is good… so much to soak up, so much to pay attention to, and more than enough to say thanks for, if we stop and see.

With deep gratitude for each one of you,

Jenn  xo