- Life. Seriously. That breath…the one you just took reading this – and the next. The fact that your chest is rising and falling as your lungs fill with air and your heart beats. The fact that you woke up this morning – unique. The only YOU on planet earth.
- Relationships. Of all sorts. From the kind that go deep, stretching our thinking and impacting the core of who we are to “chance encounters” that, often while brief, have the opportunity just the same to leave a lasting impression.
- Freedom. No matter the issues we might have, there is little room for dispute that in comparing nations around the world, we live in a great country. A place where we can choose every day to succeed or fail, speak out or stay silent, dream or resign ourselves to someone else’s.
- Beauty. It’s all around us. We get to LIVE among this amazing landscape of water, trees, mountains, beaches, city skylines, star-filled skies, sunrises and sunsets. If we had nothing else, imagine if we just had sunrises and sunsets to appreciate every day?
- The Ability to Learn. I mean, how cool is it that we can constantly add to the databank of our mind until the day that we die? We can observe things. Reason things. Study things. Sometimes very purposefully and intentionally, other times passively. “Living life” just lends itself to learning.
- Creativity. Adding to the above, isn’t it also cool that we’re not just robots mechanically going through motions? We can express ourselves a thousand different ways: writing, painting, acting, speaking, singing, dancing, crafting (thank you, Pinterest!). How fun that the limit to our creative musings is our imagination itself.
- Fun. Know what I mean? Just having F.U.N! Whatever that means to you. Relaxing in the sun with a good book. Taking a bucket list vacation. Knock knock jokes with 3 year olds (always a winner!). If you’re not laughing regularly, something is wrong. Stop taking yourself so seriously.
- Hard Work. Now, maybe you’ll disagree with me here, but I for one am very grateful for hard work. Whether a project that has used up every ounce of brain power or a manual job successfully completed by your own two hands (ask my sister about the year I was insane about achieving and maintaining the perfect Michigan lawn!). The kind of work that just leaves you feeling satisfied at the end of a long day. Ahhhh…
- Lessons Learned. Ouch. This one can hurt. Unless you’re terribly self-aware (and, let’s be honest, basically perfect), more often than not this comes about as a result of something you have done – shall we say – not quite right? You’ve missed the mark, yet still managed to live to tell about it and, hopefully, will be better for it. And the good news?:
there is always… - New Beginnings. This is the proverbial “other side” of the Lesson Learned. Some of us get there more quickly than others. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and forge ahead with a today will be better kind of attitude. We use some of those “leassons learned” not only to better ourselves but to better mankind (or at least our sphere of influence). Of course God is the Author of New Beginnings. We see that throughout Scripture and in our day to day lives. I’m beyond grateful for Jesus. I don’t even think there are words in the English language that can express how much.
What are some “every day kind of things” you’re grateful for?
…in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians. 5:18
