I Am Thankful - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Sometimes in life a moment comes along...and it's just a moment...but it's weighty, like a large brick, landing on your tiny, pinky fingernail...and it stings. You suck in your breath, close your eyes, and shake your hand and turn your head, pretending to ignore it, hoping to make the pain go away. But it doesn't. It continues stinging...probably for quite a while, serving as this reminder to be careful next time. To not be so callous when holding weighty items. As dropping them might hurt for quite a while.

Life's been that way for awhile...stinging from dropping the 'weighty' things. A friend and I spoke frankly the other day about how life's gotten too busy. We've taken on too much. And it's not that we meant to...it was no more than the normal load that we've always carried in the past, but for the first time there's something slowing us down. We can't accomplish all that we used to. No, wait a minute. I HAVE accomplished it all, just not as proficiently as I used to...and there have been a few sacrifices along the way. And, that may be the hardest thing of all. Whether it's children or family illness or just my own impossibly high expectations of myself, I can't do everything at the same level that I always have in the past.

This is the hardest part, I swear! This A-type personality who is used to having command of everything is being told to slow down, take a breath, take note of the 'weighty' things in life, and give thanks for these blessings. And no, the voice that's telling me that isn't a doctor or anyone like that, but rather a higher, more powerful voice. One that knows me better than anyone.

An acquaintance from college...no, I'll call her a friend, because in the ag industry, we're all friends...Holly Spangler, told me about her challenge of blogging for thirty days straight in November, and I decided to jump on board. Not to add something else to my to-do list, but to remind myself everyday for thirty days in a row of the simple things that life should be about...my family, my friends, a glass of wine, a cup of coffee on our front porch, watching the cattle drink at the pond...and to live it. To say, "Today, I am thankful," EVERYDAY. And to remind myself to slow, down, take a breath, and enjoy the simple moments that are going on around me.

Because blog posts are boring without a picture, I leave you with a picture of my Colby...three years old and on her first day of preschool, which I missed, because I was working, and who I didn't get to talk to before school, because my Blackberry failed overnight. It won't happen again...the missing the moment, that is.  Because two months later, this one is stil stinging.



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Day 2:  Tis a Gift to be Simple...