Being Thankful

today is thanksgiving eve.  my house is clean (somewhat) and i have started some of my cooking but i wanted to take a moment to rest and reflect on the things i am so thankful for in this world of mine.  there are all the basic things that i take for granted day in and day out like, electricity, running water, gasoline in my car, my car, a warm home, having a home, clothes, shoes, food, medicines, stores close by, my church, freedom to worship and about a zillion other things.  i am also so thankful for my family, my friends, my church family, my coworkers and my job.  good health insurance (so far) and the access to physicians and dentists that is bar none around this world.  i am so thankful to live in the united states.  the issues and problems this country has are very real and very large but i am still grateful to live in this wonderful land of plenty.  i am thankful for personal things that are just for this woman...my precious grandbabies...oh, how i love them.  my daughters and the privilege and wonderment at watching the women they are becoming.  my great sons-in-law, really, really good men.  the opportunity to live next door to my parents.  it is so funny to watch them growing old and helping them out now and then and secretly knowing that one day all too soon i will be helping them more and more.  i know that they will take a great deal of my future time but before i know it i will look out my window and someone else will occupy their home.  i won't be able to run over there on our well trod path just to show my mama something or take my daddy a piece of cake or pie.  well, now that i am crying i might as well start thinking on the things that are hard to be thankful for.  like being single in a world that is not so kind to older single women.  in the last couple of years it has taken quite a bit out of me to get used to being alone but now that my baby is married and gone and i am truly all by myself i can say that through this valley i have grown so close to the Lord and for that i am thankful.  would i ever have chosen this path???  no, never.  i love the idea and thought of being married and all that goes with that commitment.  when i did marry, i married for life but when things spiral out of control and people make wrong choices and go down the wrong trail looking for something else....well, we won't go there today.  let's just say i would love to marry again but only someone that i have no doubt or fears about and someone that loves God and Godliness and not what things this world offers that is just so fleeting and so deceptive.  i am thankful for this time of need, insecurity, self-doubt and sadness because it has made me look at things and people differently.  given me a whole new outlook on matters of the heart...and soul.  i am not as quick to judge...a little softer...a little more tender and a whole lot kinder to others who find themselves in places they never planned on being.  a few other things i am thankful for...good health, good sense and a sound mind.  now i surely cannot leave out the trivial stuff like hair dye, make up, good moisturizer and a daily hot bath while i admire a not so recent pedicure.  massages, manicures, jewelry and 300+ thread count sheets.  the luxuries of this world are nice at times and i am thankful for them.  but mostly i am thankful for Jesus.  He loves me when i am so unlovable.  He is with me always...even at night when the phone doesn't ring and there is no one to laugh at a stupid commercial with or talk to.  so i do talk to my dog and myself a whole lot but i also talk to Jesus out loud a whole lot.  and for Him...i am most thankful.