My Take on Gratefulness

It's November.  The month that pretty much (in the U.S.) revolves around the beginning of the holidays, Thanksgiving, and ultimately, thankfulness.  I got a copy of the Magnolia journal fall edition, and Joanna Gaines wrote an article on being grateful that got me thinking.  For me, I find it way too easy to get into a rut of just "going with the flow" and yeah, I'm grateful for...everything! Because I am; it's not that I'm not grateful.  I just think that sometimes it's easy to forget the deep message and meaning behind what being thankful really entails.

This year, I'm thankful for peace.  Even when life still hurts and I don't know what the future is going to be or the brightness of it.  Peace is a slippery thing; you think you have it, but then the next instant it can be gone.  It's something that brings purpose to life, and I believe it's essential to lead a joy filled life.  And that's what we all want, isn't it? I'm thankful for the peace of Christ, because that's the only peace in my life that's ever been constant.  And if you don't have that peace in your life, I say please find it.  It makes life much more beautiful.

Another thing I'm thankful for this year is health.  I've always been the type of person who seems to get sick a lot more easier than others, and I've never understood that, let me tell you.  I tend to eat more on the "healthy" side; yet I always seem to have this tendency to catch the flu or a cold in the winter.  And I hate it.  I hate being sick.  It's the worst, absolutely.  I found this saying "Health is Wealth" recently, and the more I think about it, that's so true.  It doesn't matter how many dreams you have, how much you want to achieve, what you want to do whether it's flying to the moon or climbing a mountain (examples, ok), you can't do anything unless you have the health to do it.  And staying healthy...man, that's such a gift.  

Thirdly, I'm thankful for opportunity.  I'm glad I live in a country where there's freedom and opportunity.  And obviously, yeah, America has some major shortcomings as of late too, but that doesn't change some of the basic principles of this country, and I'm very grateful for everything I have here.  There's so much opportunity.  Quite literally, you can do anything you want to do and be whoever you want to be.  With that comes a lot of freedom.  But for me, regardless of whatever opportunities there may be out there, and even though "the world is yours for the taking", I honestly know and can say from experience that true living is found in the center of God's will.  His plans for me far exceed anything that I could "dream" of.  This summer I discovered so much more about the hobbies I love and want to pursue, and there's so much opportunity out there to take it and run with it.  I'm thankful.

And...I'm thankful that I'm alive.  Because that's a pretty freakin' awesome gift.  And even though some a lot days life isn't perfect and seems really, really awful and I hate those days beyond words, y'know what? I'm still alive.  I still have this amazing, amazing gift called life! AND that's flippin awesome, man!! Even when it doesn't feel like it, it's still true.  Feelings don't define facts.  God is good, all the time.  

Truthfully, I have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving (and every day).  I could go on and on about what I have to be thankful for, but honestly, it's about living a thanksgiving lifestyle.  Not just fishing out a hundred reasons*  on Thanksgiving day to be thankful (although that's awesome and you should totally do that), but living with the mindset of Thanksgiving of every day.  Especially on the hard ones. 

*LOL @ myself because I wrote a post on a 100 reasons I'm thankful last year xDD

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This post is significantly longer than I'd expected it to be lol.  BUT THAT'S OK. 

So what about you? To all y'all not celebrating Thanksgiving, what are some stuff you're thankful for anyway? And also, if you are celebrating it, are you doing anything special? Visiting family? Eating turkey? Did you know 51 million people are traveling this year for Thanksgiving? !!! INSANE !! (I'm not one of the 51m by the way) 

Stay safe & thankful xx

autumn