early thanksgiving

Sometimes when life gets so crazy and busy
and you seem to be surrounded by dis-heartening news
and lots of bills pile up and someone puts a dark blue shirt
in with the whites and all of your whites are now baby blue
and then your 2 year old starts playing a new game called
"wipe-the-boogie-on-whoever-is-close-by"
and his father thinks it is funny and on top of that, you are real tired....
sometimes...you forget to be thankful.
But then sometimes right in the middle of your day
you realize the sky is blue and your kids are healthy and
you're not doing so bad yourself in the health department
(give or take those few handfuls of chocolate chips you eat on occasion)
and you remember you have a warm place to sleep even if you are real tired
and your heart, even after 12 years of marriage, still beats a little faster
when you think of going on a date with your husband
and you think to yourself, "Baby blue undies aren't that hideous,"
and you pause long enough to realize that the God of the universe
has you in his very palm,
the very center of his hand...
right then....you are filled with some thankfulness. Yes, you are.
Because there is, it seems, even with all the chaos of ordinary living,
SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR. Except for the new boogie game.
No one is expecting you to be thankful about that.
Here are some folks who had a few profound things to say on the subject.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought;
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
~G.K. Chesterton

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies;
but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
~Henry Ward Beecher