Saturday, October 6, 2012

Being thankful......

It has been the most glorious fall I can remember.  Sunshine, warm weather during the day, amazing blue skies, fresh air, the ripening of fruits on the vines and the trees, slow colour change making the fall foliage catch fire at last...  and crisp, lightly frosted nights that come early and end later, making my sleeping time sweet and peaceful.  I have so much to be thankful for, and with Thanksgiving this long weekend for us Canadians I have been taking a long look at what I have instead of what I thought I was missing. 

First, I am especially grateful that my children are all healthy, living their lives, learning new things that will carry them forward into the future... they are safe, honest, strong, loving, and finding loves of their own as adults.  I am thankful for my health... waking with pain makes you appreciate those moments when you are pain free, and getting older has shown me that pain is relative... if I can still walk, if I can still move through my day and accomplish what I want to - even if it is less than I could do even four years ago - it is still something to be grateful for....  I am thankful I still have a home to clean, a kitchen to cook in, a comfortable bed to sleep in, food in my cupboards with enough to share, a place to wash my clothes and music playing over my media center....  a lot, really... and more....

I am thankful for the strength to be able to shovel my own driveway when it snows - and also thankful I have a driveway to shovel...  that my garden gives me pleasure in it's bounty of apples and roses, that there is a place to park my car - and I am grateful I have a car as well...  Grateful my roof doesn't leak and neither does my plumbing...  the furnace keeps my home warm on cold nights, and I can keep it cool on warm days by simply opening a few windows...  I'm grateful for comfort and quiet...I am grateful for sight to take in the mundane and the magical, ears to pick up on the blowing of the wind, through the trees or the insane barking of a pack of excited dogs... music to fill my soul and allow my heart to sing....  the scents of fall with pumpkins, damp earth, leaf mold, fall fruits and woodsmoke, as well as the smells from my now busy kitchen - apple pies, butter chicken, pasta sauce, and this weekend the full blown smells of turkey dinner with all the trimmings....  I am grateful for the ability to touch and learn the textures of my world... to taste the layers of flavour in everything right down to the waxy aroma of lavender scented candles I use to freshen my home. I am grateful for art in all it's forms because it livens my soul and connects me to the rest of the world.

I am grateful for my own well being;  I have my pets to care for, and their gratitude is immense.  I have a job that I still love, and although the hours aren't plentiful and neither is the money I still have just enough to get by on month to month.  My bills are paid, my finances are under control.  I am grateful for my emotional health and the strength to maintain it.  I am especially grateful for finding professional help that led me to the right choices to keep myself strong - and for the medication that works on my chemistry in a way that makes every day joyful instead of dreadful. 

I am truly grateful for friends; those who I have known for a long time, those I have had in my life always, those I have reconnected with in the last while, and those who are new in my circle and who make their diverse personalities part of the patchwork of my life.  I am grateful for friends who just laugh... They say that the best cure for most things is a nap and a good, long laugh....  and yes, I wholeheartedly agree!  That is the most important thing I am grateful for... laughter...  It heals all hurts, makes life lighter, cures ills, brings youth to weary faces...  and makes us all connected for those instants while laughter is shared.

So here's to all those I love this long weekend!  May your time be filled with the simple pleasures of family, good friends, good health, good food and laughter.....  and if you need one you could always have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go.....    Bring me a tea while you're there, all right?  There is pie in the kitchen when you drop by....