Friday night grateful moment

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,
it will be enough.

-Meister Eckhart

This week I am especially grateful for my family, and for the support and love they have given me my whole life. The more I observe people's behavior over the course of a life, I see how it is shaped from the beginning; how powerful those early influences of family are. Coming from a place of love and security really is the kind of jumping-off point you'd wish for every child. I *do* wish that, for every child...

On this Father's Day weekend, I am grateful for my dad, who has been such an encourager over the years. He believes in his kids and isn't shy of saying so. I have (mostly) always appreciated that about him. (The mostly is more a reflection of my adolescent years, when I'm pretty sure I wasn't appreciative of *much*!) You can always count on my dad for a good game of hearts or dominoes, really anything competitive! And he's a good one for a joke too... Grandpa's already been an inspiration to Seth in that way--ha! He's accomplished a great deal in his life, and his artistic eye is one that we all admire and aspire to. Thanks for being such a great dad and grandfather, Pa.

I'm grateful for my husband, and his constant love. I do not take that for granted. (Funny story: I was describing to him an actress we both know, from Battlestar Galactica, who then played a small recurring role on Burn Notice... I said I thought she was gross. He said, "Well then, I think she's gross too." How great is he?!) (She's actually quite stunning. But also gross.)

I'm grateful for a communicative and affectionate son. We had just *the best* week together. I hesitate to say that, lest it jinx the rest of the summer... but it was pretty darn good. He knows how to make a mom (and stepdad) feel loved.

Oh, that sunshine. So grateful that we seem to be seeing an increase in the rays. Beautiful. I have the blinds up in my office, and even though the glare on my computer screen annoys me a bit, I am just so happy having the sunshine streaming in behind me.

And in that sunshine, I was blessed to have lunch with some lovely ladies today, girlfriends I've been lunching with on a monthly basis for a few years now. We sat on our deck and ate salads that had ingredients from our garden--not a lot, yet, but a few! And visited and laughed and told stories and caught up in general. You know, the good stuff. I am grateful for friendship.

I'm so thankful to have so many beautiful strawberries in our small patch. I think we picked almost 15 pounds this week, Seth and I. That hardly seems possible, and is definitely more than we need for breakfast eating... so we're eating them at every meal!

I am always so grateful for color, for everything from the cherries turning from yellow to red right outside my window, to the pansies and daisies and little green nasturium leaves... I try to imagine what my life would be without sight, or without color, and that just makes me all the more grateful for color in my life.

I'm grateful for all the different kinds of people and personalities I come in contact with. So many different permutations... I know sometimes the temptation is strong to want everyone to be "just like me," or at least have a few similarities... it's true that makes things easier, sometimes (but how about that person who's Just. Like. You... and drives you crazy? You know the one I'm talking about!), but so often the people that push us, make us all uncomfortable, those are the ones that are NOT like us, and can really help us grow and stretch. Darn them.

Always, I'm grateful for words. Words of comfort that can mean so much in a difficult time, words of encouragement to get up and keep going, words of affection, words of promise and hope... I have learned over the years (and with a little encouragement) that words are *just* words, and some people can spin them all "pretty like." So while I do so love the words, they gotta be backed up by actions...

Here are a few word-related images I found or pinned on Pinterest this week:

source

source

source

source

Gotta remember that one especially...

A few choice words for your weekend, from a cute little boy:


I hope you've had a good week, and that the weekend ahead brings you the kind of rest and peace and activity you're looking for! I will be holding out hope for the sunshine to continue!