I Am Thankful

sufey

In Personal, Read Posted November 22, 2012

I am thankful.

I am thankful for mama and daddy, who have given me life, and for the entirety of my family, who teach me to be alive. I love you.

I am thankful for air to breathe.

I am thankful for the kindness of strangers, like the businessman who bought my cart-full of groceries last month when I ran out of cash on hand. “I was a student once too,” he chuckled, “consider it my donation to the university.”

I am thankful for old ladies who invite me in for piping hot tea and freshly-baked cookies. For college students who give their bed to me and sleep on the floor instead. For unmet relatives who travel across the country to take me out for dinner. For everyone who takes care of me, feeds me, dresses me, and loves me as their own.

Because it has taught me to do the same.

I am thankful for the hugs and giggles of pretty little girls, for the way they twirl soft chubby fingers through my hair.

I am thankful for cotton-candy swirls in the sky at sunrise.

I am thankful for my man. For the notes you leave me every day. For the way we sing wordless songs that ebb and flow, intertangling into each other. For the way you trust me with your fears, and the way you understand mine. For being my someone to love.

I am thankful for street children who slip blue beaded bracelets onto my wrists and say to me: “Friend, friend. Free for friend.”

I am thankful for friends who wait long waits in waiting rooms to see that I’m okay. For nice nurses who squeeze my shaking hands extra-firmly.

I am thankful for soul-songs.

I am thankful for silence.

I am thankful for baby brothers that won’t let me sleep alone when I’m sad. For the time I woke up to crayon-penned notes tucked ’round my room that all started with “I love you because…”

I am thankful for sadness. Because how else to fully appreciate joy?

I am thankful for yoga. For living mindfully, soulfully, gratefully, blissfully. For constant challenges that push me beyond my edge. For daily shavasanas.

I am thankful to feel lonely, sometimes.

I am thankful to not be alone. I am thankful for kindred spirits who move me, hug me, and stand me up when I trip over my own two feet.

I am thankful for my feet. They walk me many places.

I am thankful for God, who is here in me and around me every day. I am thankful for magic and miracles.

I am thankful for sweet oranges and cucumber juice.

I am thankful for cute little piglets to feed.

I am thankful to know nothing.

I am thankful to learn from everyone I meet.

I am thankful for puddles of side-splitting, pants-peeing laughter.

I am thankful to have so much to be thankful for that I can’t write it all down.

I am thankful to stop now and go outside to soak up the sun.

I am thankful.