Spent Thanksgiving with family, but this year we were especially grateful to have my uncle with us. He has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and did not know if he would be with us this year. Not only was he with us, but his numbers are down so far they are re-evaluating his status. It was good to have him with us and doing well.
Flat tire. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today I am going to try to be grateful for the difficulties in life.
Perfect example happened this morning. We had the car checked yesterday to be sure it would be ready for a road trip over Thanksgiving. It had been running rough and we needed to find the problem before we left. We found a “bubble” in one of the tires that was about ready to blow. Cash being a little low, my husband put the spare on and decided that would work for now. He then ran off to an appointment. He didn’t even make it there before the spare tire decided to blow. He had not bothered to put the bad tire back in the car so he can’t do anything about being stranded on the side of the road. Here is where the gratitude comes in. Driving older cars, and previous difficulties have taught us to always carry towing and roadside assistance. At least we knew enough to be somewhat prepared for this problem. It would be miserable to not be able to learn from past problems. And I guess I should be grateful that it blew out before we headed out on the road.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May your holiday plans be blow-out free.
Part of my season of gratitude I am going to try to be satisfied with what I have. There are always more wants than resources, there are always more people telling you that you need something you don’t have. Even this morning I was wishing it was warmer and not so cold. The irony is that just a month ago I was wishing it was cooler and not so warm. Why can’t we just enjoy what we have?
Today I am grateful for metalworking and everyday tools. It is so simple, and I take it so for granted.
Last week my son did something he was told not to do and ended up with a leg full of splinters from a rotting board. I am still in the process of pulling well over 100 splinters out of his leg. I am grateful that I have the medical understanding to prevent infection from the bad wood, and today I am equally grateful that I had easy and immediate access to a needle, tweezers, good lighting and even corrected eyesight. I have no idea how people lived without even those most basic tools. Probably many of the smaller splinters would have just festered and who knows what may have happened to his leg, and I would have been powerless to do anything.
More technology today. Our printer died and we were having a difficult time living without one. Yesterday we broke down and got the cheapest thing we could find. (okay, the second cheapest) I will say that printers have come a long way since our last printer purchase. A little bragging, but its extra cool the things it can do. It can print documents, photos, all of the basics. It can scan, copy, fax, and feed multiple documents. It can store numbers, reduce, enlarge, print on different media, and double side print. As if that were not enough, it will talk to almost every wireless device in our home, and once I get the right software on my phone, I can print from my phone, even if I am out of state. This particular model doesn’t send things via e-mail for me, but for bottom of the line I can deal with that.
Anyhow, it is easy to focus on the fact that the printer and the DVD went out the same day and say how frustrating that is. Reality is that not only do we live like kings and queens every day of our lives, but today even the less wealthy among us live like the wealthy did a few years back. I can remember when I never thought I would be able to afford anything in my home that would adequately print my own photos, I’d never own an expensive fax machine or copier, and I definitely wouldn’t care if it could talk to my phone. I was just happy if I could get the dial up and fax options to not mess up my answering machine. Today I’m blessed beyond my expectations, and my first thought was that I still need a DVD player. I will work on that.
This morning we read the story of the 10 lepers. Just wondering, perhaps we only consciously recognize 1/10th of what the Savior does for us? We know this story as a lesson to show more gratitude, but I know I often dismiss it as talking only about the other ungrateful people out there, not me. Maybe it is really about all of us as well.
SEEing Miracles 