10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 10

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 10

Day 1: Me!
Day 2: My Hubby!
Day 3: My Immediate Family!
Day 4: My Extended Family!
Day 5: My Friends!
Day 6: My Dogs!
Day 7: My Job!
Day 8:  My Country!
Day 9: Art!

So this is the last of the challenge, but I have to tell you it's hard to pick just one thing to post about.  I am thankful for all of the abundance in my life.  For the things we take for granted like drinking water, running water, electricity, central air and heat, my Prius, the amazing array of accessible food, choices of medical care and the ability to access almost anything quickly from my house.

There are nations of people who don't have ANY of these luxuries.  Children who never know the convenience of food they don't have to harvest themselves on a daily basis, if they are lucky enough to have something to harvest.  Parents who struggle to keep their children alive with food and water, for whom the question of "which school has the best social programs" never even comes up, because education is a luxury they can't imagine.  If you think I'm exaggerating, I recommend broadening your horizons.  For all that we rolled our eyes at the Sally Struthers commercials encouraging you to feed one child for pennies a day - those stories are real.  Those people are real.

Even in more technologically advanced nations, like China, India, and parts of our own country, there are people who have little to nothing.  They are born into nothing and have little prospects to change that.  I look at the number of homeless and forgotten in our own country and I could fall to me knees.

I am truly thankful for my life.  For every small blessing I overlook and forget on a daily basis, all those things I take for granted, and the ones I can't even think of right now.  There aren't enough days in the year to articulate all the millions of small things we have to be thankful for so taking this small time to talk about it has been a blessing.

Taking the time to share this with you has been another blessing for me.  It has really helped me remove the negative outlook that was pervading my life and embrace the amazing amount of positivity.  Sure, there are still tough days and my cynical humor isn't going anywhere, but it is much healthier to spend most of my time acknowledging and rejoicing in the blessings of my life.

Thank you for taking the journey with me,  I pray your Thanksgiving is amazing.  No matter the weather or people you spend it with, find some silver linings and dance in them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Nicole