Friday night grateful moment

very now and again, it happens. The week is challenging; no other way to say it. Many areas of unrest, stress, tension, for many I care about. So what else is new?! But among the dark spots are the rays of light too...

This week I'm grateful for so many things, but top of the list is my gratitude for belief and faith and the comfort that faith brings. As a local family grieves this weekend for their son, I can't help but be there with them in spirit, wanting somehow for their pain to be diminished, and knowing how preposterous it is to think it even could, or should, be diminished.

I'm grateful for the space to have a bad day. Which is a roundabout way of saying I have a loving and understanding spouse who supports me whether I'm cheerful or not. Thank you.

I'm grateful that Seth enjoys school and academic things enough that when school conferences roll around I can (so far!) fairly well predict what I'll hear from teachers. Whew.

I'm thankful for Seth's courage in the face of difficult conversations. He's learning tools for navigating the world that took me much longer to catch on to. (Yeah, yeah, you can keep that comment to yourself.) Also, I am grateful that Seth has teachers and administrators that look out for him and support him. And friends who are true. Not to be underestimated.

I'm grateful that warmth has come our way, and that everything is greening up nicely. Daffodils are blooming, peonies are poking through, and yes, I need to clear out the tumbleweeds... or at the very least, pitchfork them over the fence during the next windstorm!

I'm grateful for friends and coffee and catching up. And homemade croissants! Banana bread! Wordy Girls! Love you all.

I'm grateful that the parents are on the homestretch from their cruise and should be here in a couple of weeks. I'm thankful, too, that the tsunami last weekend didn't amount to much and that Aunty MJ is having a fabulous time in Hawaii.

 I'm grateful for all the fun and interesting people I have interacted with because of my blog, or their blog, or both. From the Good List Daily folk, to my Thursday 13 connections to the Bits of My Weekend, it's always refreshing to see qualities I value--from creativity to gratitude to just plain old good writing or good food--running around out there on the web! From my runnings around just yesterday I met two new favorite Etsy folks--one was an artist I have been ga-ga over for awhile (but didn't know she had an Etsy shop! That's her art above.), and another (beautiful jewelry! That's one of her pieces below--you knew I'd pick the bunny, didn't you?!) found me through my Thursday 13 post. How very fun. 

I'm grateful that my internet issues won't be entered into the DSM this coming year! Whew. One more year free and clear from the diagnosis. Ha ha.

I'm so thankful for asparagus. For fresh and springy things. For Easter on it's way. For the birds chirping. For the promise of new life--we had a drive-by calf-birthing sighting last weekend. Always a miracle.

I'm grateful, as always, for creative and unique ideas. Check out this fun Scrabble cookie display. Clever. I can think of a lot of fun applications for this concept!

Saw this posted via Twitter this week, and was struck by both the blog post and the video. Good stuff to think about. I like M. Ward.



My favorite quote found this week:

"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace." - Chuck Palahniuk

I hope your weekend brings you peace and joy and love (even if you won't learn a lot from peace, it's still nice to have a little every now and again!). And hope. It's always nice to add in a bit of hope.

Image at top of post originally found here.