A Simple Gratitude

It's been a quiet Thanksgiving in some ways, and that's been great. Yesterday, it was "just us" [minus one and I'm letting those longings be God's deal], with all three grandchildren and a walk in the maple bush right near our house. Loved it. Gentle, together, outside with the Creator....and my family.

Shouldn't be, really. So much would have been our undoing were it not for that same Creator creating in us room for each other, and forgiveness, and acceptance. I am grateful this Thanksgiving that I have been forgiven by my children for the inadequacies of my mothering, and that by now they still love me enough to want to take a Thanksgiving walk together. So grateful for that.

I am grateful for how that love is also the connecting wire to three (so far) stellar little human beings that mystically carry some of my DNA and totally carry my heart. My gratitude for that is unspeakable.

I am grateful for a husband who has walked walks with me for 33 years plus and still serves me in his willingness to match his stride to mine, both actually and metaphorically, as we follow what has at times been a very winding life-road.

I am grateful for the harshness that's come to us in different ways, meant to break us up, but somehow having been used to bind us tight. And the missing one too. In time. I know it, because of how He's proven Himself faithful.

Simply walking in a bush together on Thanksgiving.