Spiritual Journey Thursday: Gratitude

I'm hosting today, so welcome, fellow SJT writers! Leave your link in the comments, and I'll round them up. Even if you're not a regular SJT writer, feel free to leave a gratitude list in the comments, anyway, or to link us to something on your blog. I intended to post this on Wednesday evening, but instead posted it early Wednesday morning. But I guess that's OK - maybe we needed an extra boost of gratitude on Wednesday this week.

 

I signed up for this job before 2020 began, and because it was November, I chose the theme of Gratitude. This year hasn't been at all as I had envisioned, but being grateful is still the best way to view the world, and I have so many reasons for gratitude. 

Recently, I sat in a doctor's office next to my husband, listening to the doctor talk about exercise and my husband tell about his cycling. The conversation made me think about sitting in a doctor's office in that same practice (though the practice has expanded and moved to a new location since then, and this was a different doctor), as my OB and my husband talked about cycling, a sport they both did avidly. I often felt like saying, "Hey! Remember me? I'm the one who's pregnant here - let's talk about me!" A lot has changed since those conversations years ago, and my babies are all grown up. But listening to my husband and his doctor, I remembered so many years of marriage, so many bike trips. I felt deep gratitude.

Here are some things, big and small, on the gratitude list generated in my head at that doctor's appointment:

1. A husband who still loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, after 31 years of marriage

2. Our children, one of whom texted while we sat there, having just arrived safely home from a bike trip of her own

3. Doctors to help us when we're sick and to encourage us to stay healthy

4. Health, and a continued ability to walk and bike and enjoy the world, even though lockdowns of several kinds have narrowed our world lately, and sickness has slowed us both down

5. This gorgeous, complicated island where we are so privileged to live

6.  Books to read, including on the electronic reader that was in my bag and that I'd been reading in the waiting room before the appointment

7. Birds, including the ones we'd seen from the car on the way there

8. COVID rates in this country that are far lower than what was predicted, even given the incomplete statistics we have (when we discussed this with the doctor, and asked for his opinions, he said he thought God had been good to us)

9. Friends, including the one we'd talked with in the waiting room

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

 

"We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory." The General Thanksgiving, Book of Common Prayer

Carol  has a bunch of goodies for us this month, from gorgeous fall photos to a found poem to a suggestion to take an "awe walk." So many reasons for gratitude! 

 

Linda shows us a wonderful thing for which she's grateful, and even included a photo and a poem!

 

Fran is speaking my language by quoting Reepicheep, the gallant mouse!  

Margaret is in with a gratitude poem, a lovely photo, and an invitation to participate in gratiku.

Karen  talks about a book she's been reading called Liturgy of the Ordinary (it's been on my wishlist for a while, and maybe this is the push I need to read it!), and shares a gratitude list. 

 

Ramona went for a walk and took glorious pictures!