Today am think­ing of all I am grate­ful for in my life.  Per­haps it is the fact that we are deep into the Christ­mas sea­son, which for us started Christ­mas Day and con­tin­ues even now.  Or per­haps it is yet again my melan­choly nature rear­ing its head because we are at the end of another year gone by.  I don’t know but I do know I’m feel­ing very over­whelmed with the gifts I have been blessed with by God.

Not the things that come with rib­bons & bows. Not the things that can be quan­ti­fied.  But those things in life that defy the con­sumerism that is pushed down our throats this time of year. The things that defy the meau­rable stan­dards of pure equity, the quid pro quo that is oft cited as the rea­son to do any­thing. As if doing or being is only rooted in what I can get and if it is equal to what I gave.  When in real­ity love and life are not reduc­tion­ist ele­ments, they are more than the sum of their parts.

It is this that I am grate­ful for, the abil­ity to be part of some­thing more than mere parts, to be part of some­thing that is more than what appears to the naked eye. To be part of love.

I am grate­ful for the love of my hus­band, my chil­dren, my fam­ily and friends. My faith, my life and the gift of redemp­tion.  For the chance that not only is tomor­row a new day but that there is always a new moment to live more fully in those gifts and to take in the won­ders that are all around me, those that are there in the seem­ingly ordi­nary exchanges of every­day life.  I am grate­ful that I have come to real­ize, we are born & we die, but it is the breath we draw in between that mat­ters.  And that this breath is more than what it appears, it is deeper, broader and no mat­ter how short or long it extends beyond what we can see.  Yes, I am full of grat­i­tude for this great breath that is my life. 

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