Much to be Thankful For...

Another year has flown by so fast.  I can't believe it's already the holiday season.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be grateful for.  Life is such a rollercoaster with so many ups and downs.  Recently, I re-discovered what I'm sure I already knew at some point in the past...a very valuable and comforting realization.

I was re-taught that when things are rough financially and it all seems to be going amuck, I know that I will always have the basic necessities.  I will always have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes on my back, and the love of my family.  When it comes down to it, isn't that all that really matters?  It truly is.  I will also probably always have electricity and running water, and at least one working car and those could be considered luxuries.

It's really hard when money is scarce but it makes you re-evaluate what's a want vs. a need.  I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned in being "poor."  And the beauty is, the situation is pretty much always temporary.  And as "poor" as we think we are, we truly have an abundance.  We have much more than so many people out there.  And we have always been giving people and I know what goes around, comes around.

Basic necessities...this lesson has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm grateful for it.

A girl I met once at a book club poem reading wrote a haiku that read, "Loads of dishes and laundry mean an abundance."  Can't you just see that as vinyl lettering or on a wood plaque in the laundry room of every LDS home in America?

I know that there is a lesson to be learned from every trial and I love that knowledge.  I ask myself, "What am I supposed to learn from this?"  There's normally more than one thing to learn but trials always make me relate better to others.  They teach empathy and humility.  They make me want to give and serve others more.  Without trials, what would we really learn in this life?

This is what I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving.  I have much to be grateful for.

P.S. We have been in San Antonio for exactly one year today.