Thankfulness

This is a rehash of some things I posted on my Facebook page a few weeks ago when I was in a particularly foul mood. There are lots of things I’m thankful for, big and small. This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list but it reminds me of how good my life really is and how blessed I am…far beyond what I deserve. In no particular order, I am thankful for…

• Cheese
• Pizza
• Jambalaya
• Football
• Christmas
• The beach
• The mountains
• The satisfying feeling of clicking my daughter’s barrette in my fingers
• Lunch on Sundays at the Mexican restaurant
• Cornbread and black-eyed peas
• Riding my bike
• Sisters
• My fabulous family
• T-shirts that are long enough
• T-shirts on which the neck is not stretched out of shape
• New shoes that make me run fast
• My Power Balance wristband which allows me to jump flat-footed from the sidewalk in front of Wal-Mart onto the top of the building
• A good salad slathered in Italian dressing with so many bacon bits that I can’t even see the lettuce
• The smell of cinnamon
• Big cities
• Creeks
• Really hot showers on cold days
• Singing Barry Manilow songs loudly while driving
• The song Send in the Clowns as performed by Mandy Patinkin
• Jim Brickman
• Tacky Christmas lights
• Waking up in the middle of the night when you don’t have to work the next day and getting caught up in some show or a replay of an Alabama football game
• Reese’s Puffs cereal
• Cool autumn nights
• Pizza nights on Sunday nights after church
• Watching someone who is really good play the guitar
• The feeling I get every time I walk through Liberty Square at Disney World
• Pretty much everything about Disney World
• Hearing my dad pray
• My mom’s beef stew
• Remembering how much fun it used to be to hang out at Steve and Joy’s on Sunday nights 
• Grit pie at Steve and Joy’s
• WWII movies and documentaries
• Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel
• Going to places I’ve never been before
• The way Mrs. Ward used to pronounce the word “again”
• The way a good baseball cap fits
• The beauty of words
• Anything Rick Bragg writes
• Anything Lewis Grizzard wrote
• Trying to keep up with Gigi on runs
• Listening to Gabe’s remarkably imaginative stories
• Watching Gracie dance
• Marveling at some of the words Gabe uses even though he is only in the 4th grade
• That video that someone made and put on You Tube with all the pictures of Slapout and the song Boondocks
• The fact that Jesus wept even though he He knew He was about to knock everyone’s socks off by raising Lazarus from the dead
• A good Sunday School lesson
• Hearing Gigi sing the Sandi Patty version of How Great Thou Art
• Guy Penrod singing You Steal My Heart Away
• When I call Gigi and she answers with her “I’m happy” voice
• The way new tires make my car feel so grippy and tall
• Getting encouragement from unexpected and even unlikely sources
• Members of the military who know how to shoot guns and blow stuff up and yet they still find the time and compassion to be kind to a child in whatever God-forsaken place which they happen to be serving
• Winning an arm wrestling match
• Talking about the fun stuff we used to do
• Clouds at sunset that look like the side of the glass that my dad just drank buttermilk and cornbread out of
• Funny people
• Listening to really smart people talk about things I have no hope of understanding
• Christmas commercials that start way too early even though there’s no such thing as Christmas commercials that start way too early
• People who make a lot of money but you’d never know because they are so humble
• Those same people who share their wealth with those less fortunate than themselves
• Listening to soft jazz music outside by the firepit
• My firepit
• People who can pop a wheelie and ride on the back tire for a really long time
• Playing miniature golf at the beach
• Remembering Dave, the cat we used to have who used to sleep on his back, legs stretched out, on the bed between Gigi and me
• Watching a cat bathe itself, especially the part where it licks its paws and then rubs them on its ears and face
• The way raccoons have tiny little hands
• The Montgomery Zoo
• Rice-A-Roni
• NPR when they aren’t talking politics
• Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion
• The way people in the south pull their cars to the side of the road and stop when a funeral procession goes by
• A Savior in Jesus Christ who, no matter how much I turn my back on Him, still loves me not because of who I am, but in spite of who I am