Giving Thanks

We had a bit of a rough week.

Billy’s teaching basically 6 days a week, which

neither of us are enjoying.

On top of that….

he didn’t have Thanksgiving off.

Spending hour upon hour at home with a preschooler is

not fun.

So, this Thanksgiving made giving thanks a challenge.

Of course I can mumble thanks for obvious things,

such as the fact we are not starving or ill.

But I want to feel grateful.

It’s such a challenge to feel gratitude amongst complex emotions

and the mundane.

But it is possible!

I picked up my copy of 1000 Gifts today and began reading it again.

She too struggles with motherhood, homeschooling,

being a spiritual seeker and doing the same thing,

day in and day out.

Ann Voskamp is right: giving thanks means fully

entering the moment. It means not neglecting the hours

we are given, and looking for the magic in the mundane.

I am compelled to start my gratitude journal again, as I see it

really is a necessity. I don’t care if one is a world traveler

or a housewife

( as I am both)

we all struggle in life. That is our commonality. We want something,

get it, and then is suddenly becomes boring

and we crave something else.

The key to beating this system is to copy Voskamp’s method

of fully entering the moment and looking for the blessings all around us

even in the dishes.