A Reminder of Thanksgiving

We’ve been in our new home for almost two years now. Our lifestyle is different and we’ve made wonderful new friends. These days I spend most of my time on the same things as before…working on client projects, playing some tennis, and welcoming our friends and family. But before all of this, there was frustration, anger, and lots of impatience to move into our new home that we designed…..

It was one of those weeks.  You know, the kind of week where nothing seemed to go as planned.  Just when a little glimmer of joy appeared, another issue popped up that needed to be taken care of right away.  And then anger reared its ugly head!  I was definitely not the “positive, look-on-the-bright side” person I usually am.

I love decorating for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  And I love baking goodies for the family dinners, like my grandma’s Dutch Apple Crumb pie… that everyone loves.  But we were packing to move, and pretty much everything was in a box.

Living among boxes piled one on top of the other was not how I wanted to spend the days before Thanksgiving. My desk was emptied, files were packed, and I was about to shut down the “command center” on my desk.  It was basically total chaos around our house!

And then, as I was walking around feeling sorry for myself that life was slinging too many lemons my way, I looked up, and saw my sweet dog, Baylee, asleep on the floor.  She was totally relaxed among the boxes.  Her only need was to be by my side.  And it was then I realized that this moment was a gift from God. This moment was there to remind me about gratitude and being thankful for all of my many blessings.

And so began my daily ritual of writing down 5 things I’m grateful for. Because even if we carry these blessings in our minds for the day, somehow writing them down makes them seem real…and wonderful!