a day for thanksgiving

{found via pinterest from flickr}

i think in some ways that it's rather odd for us to have a day for thanks-giving. in other ways it's odd that we only have one.

wouldn't it make more sense to stay thankful?

i'm not the best at this, so believe me when i tell you this post is mostly for me. but feel free to read along.

why don't i live every day full of thankfulness? i have a lot to be thankful for - i have been given much. in hindsight it makes me feel like a petulant child when i complain. all of my needs are met. i'm thinking about how to fulfill my dreams. i'm thinking about how to live life to the fullest and the choices i want to make about how to live my life, and how i want to spend my money. day in and day out i make a lot of choices.

i have the luxury to choose.

i have the luxury to decide what i want to do. i don't have to wonder whether i'll be able to eat. i'm choosing what kind of food i want to buy, and cook in my well-stocked kitchen.

i don't wonder whether or not i'll have a roof over my head at night. and when i don't it's because i'm choosing to go camping.

it's so easy to compare ourselves to other people who have more. it's easy to think that a little bit more money, or a little bit more stuff, or a little bit bigger house or a little bit of this, that, and the other thing will make life better. they won't. we get those things, and then we find that we're exactly who we were before, just with one more thing.

we all have dreams. somewhere deep inside ourselves we all have dreams. sometimes we just get caught up in what everyone else says we're supposed to do, and what everyone else says we're supposed to have.

for the past couple of weeks i've been trying to decide what's next. what goal am i driving after next? i've checked off marathon #2, so now what?

i've realized that part of the "now what" needs to be thankfulness. day in, day out, thankfulness. i want to start everyday with gratitude.

there will always be things that i want. always. even with the knowledge that those things will not really make my life a whole lot better.

but i'm finally finally learning that life is not about what you have.

theoretically i've known that for a very long time. intellectually i could tell you that without blinking an eye. it's not a new concept to me. but i'm finally learning it in practice.

if i'm being really honest i'm still learning it. i'm learning that my life will not be fulfilled by what i bring home in a shopping bag. my life will not be richer in any sense of the word by buying things.

i love buying things for people - i love giving gifts, and i enjoy giving money away to a worthy cause. and i do enjoy getting things for myself. but i have so much already.

i have so much that i just cleaned my closet out a couple months ago, and i'm already thinking that i need to do it again.

i'm finally truly grateful for what i have without always having an eye on what more i want.

i don't know about you, but i need to remember what i already have, day in and day out. i feel like i need to start my day by making a grateful list. every day. maybe even two. one in the morning, one at night. everything is not going to be perfect. we will not get every single thing we ever wanted. but we can make choices about what to really go after, and what's the most important, and what's not.

life is all about making choices.

and i am choosing to be grateful. because at the end of the day, i have it really really good. even when things don't seem really really good. even when the kids are frustrating, and peter and i are fighting, and there are things we're not doing so we can do something else later. even then, i have it really really good. and i don't want to forget that.

xo