My Thankful List

The alarm installation dude is here, putting the alarm and automatic car starter in on our truck. We wanted the alarm, because it knocks down some of our insurance and whatnot... but the dealership threw in the autostart at an incredible discount for us. How could we refuse. Imagine an icy cold morning, well, like Tomorrow, perhaps based on the weather we're anticipating... and sitting in the house while the truck warms itself up. Aaaaah. Or, conversely, when it is 10,000,000 degrees out next August and we have to all pile in the mother to go somewhere... the AC will have that truck fridge-compatible. Nice.

I'm psyched. I never NEEDED one of these. There's nothing wrong with schlepping out to start the car on a snowy day. But I'm a gadget fan, and I think the concept is cool.

Plus, it's just one more reason why it's so cool to be part of western culture. No camels, no barefoot farming, no sabre rattling anger at anyone -- just preheated monster trucks and a good cup of coffee in the morning. It's another reason why many cultures hate us. And to me -- that's just fine. They could have climbed out of the damn stoneage and invented the neon under carriage lights that pimp your truck out old school, but they didn't because they were too busy subjugating women and lobbing off the hands of people who steal loaves of bread. God Bless Technology and Western Culture and Inventiveness and our America. That's all I have to say.

What got me on that? Oh... it must be the intense feeling of joy knowing I have this pimped out truck. Word.

Which leads us to Thanksgiving. Most people celebrate Thanksgiving. There are some who do not because... well. They feel that Western Culture killed theirs, which pretty much is true. And that sometimes makes me feel bad. But 300 years later, here we find ourselves, sitting on top of a holiday that should cause all people no matter what their backgrounds are (colonialist, slave, revolutionary, victim) to stop and focus internally and find something to be thankful about.

And being thankful -- what does that MEAN? Thankful to whom or what? For me, you know I'm thankful to God our Creator, His Son our Savior, and His Spirit our Sustainer for providing me with individuals and situations which make my life worth living.

If you don't believe in someone/thing to be thankful toward, I suppose you are thankful to individuals and situations... thus bypassing the giver. Which is fine too. Because part of being thankful is thanking the humans around you (whom I believe are part of your life for a reason, sometimes bigger than you know or can fathom...)

So my second annual I Am Thankful For entry is as follows:

• I am thankful that God is active in my life and the lives of many people around me, filling me with His sustaining spirit even when I'm on the verge of freaking out
• I am thankful that I have a great husband who continues to make me laugh and smile
• I am thankful for two healthy kids who make me laugh and smile
• I am thankful for this house, the ability to pay for it, the tenants who live here and don't make our lives miserable. It isn't my dream house, and it has a ton of faults, but it is the best for me right now and I sure do love it
• I am thankful for individual gifts of relationship with some unbelievably fabulous people, such as my sister, my mom, Aaron and Michelle, Gregg and Karry, Bonnie and Duncan, Wayne and Marcia and hundreds other people who wander in and out of my daily existence
• I am thankful for CM and MF for keeping me busy and entertained, for their letters of recommendation, for their ongoing professional support and undying admiration of me. They are just what my ego needs sometimes and I love them for it. I am also thankful for the relationships with coworkers that I've maintained, such as with Deb (my old boss), with FL, with Rupa, Brian, Ben, and Dan, all of whom weigh more on the friend side now than the simple co-workers side
• I am thankful for this year of being laid off, for the improvement in my son's academic and social development, for time that I wouldn't have had before, and for his wonderful teacher
• I am thankful that Doug bought the GPS and that we started Team Screamapillar, Geocaching maniacs. We've had a lot of fun and a lot of sweat with it, and we've shared a lot. Speaking for myself, it's the best hobby I've run across to date, and I feel physically in better shape than I have in years
• I am thankful for Doug's job. It's not the best job on the planet, but it gets us insurance, it gets us paid, and makes me less anxious about money
• I am thankful for the friends I've made online, Tess chiefly among them, and for the writings they share. Some of them I've known for years (Amy and Virginia), others just recently stumbled upon. They are all interesting, vibrant, supportive, funny, cranky, upset, angry and fabulous and without them my morning just doesn't seem right
• I am thankful for my little church congregation, for the people who go there and run the place, for the organist and the choir, for the other kids there to play with mine. I am thankful to the interim pastors for filling in while we search for a new pastor. I am thankful for the opportunity to bring in a new pastor and pray that it is the Best Thing Ever (TM)

I am thankful for more stuff. Of course there is always more to be thankful for. But that's an extensive list, and one that I look on and smile. I hope that whatever your circumstances are that you can find something to be thankful for, to yourself, to your friends/family, to your situation or to your God. Take a moment and pause, look back on the last year of your life. I'm sure there is one thing that stands out that makes you happy to be alive. And sometimes -- that one thing is all you need.

Happy Thanksgiving all. I may or may not get to post again until after the holiday. Depends on what happens tomorrow with the weather. We're anticipating a southern storm, which may impede our departure to Grandma's house. Much to the annoyance of my son, who insists we're going tonight. So this may be it until December! Yikes. Where is this year going?