Each day, I try to think of ways and things in which I am so grateful, blessings I acknowledge usually at the start or end of my day. But the other day, I was so overwhelmed within with the sensation of how rich my life has been overall! It was a definitive sense unlike any I  remember having had before! It seemed as though the Spirit within me was lifting me to a place of gratitude the likes of which I hadn’t known prior! It was a flood of sensation, with a highlight reel of my life passing through my mind simultaneously with the reflections I was having. In my heart and mind, I could take and comprise all that I had once enumerated singularly into something greater, bigger and more expansive. I could take my gratitude and place it upon my life in its entirety. I believe God was reminding me through the Spirit’s leading to stand strong in hope, faith and to remain contented, as He had provided so much for me throughout my life. My life in total reflects more than I often even remembered and my life’s value is more esteemable than those daily lists might reflect! Instead of having my daily list of things in which to be grateful to use as a means of silencing the fears, doubts, worries and consuming, disturbing emotions which stir within me during these unsettling days here on planet Earth, God was giving me (through the Spirit within me) a fuller, bigger and more expansive sense of gratitude to stand firm and strong anew each day! 

I’ve always been loved, cared for, fed, clothed, housed, educated, and have had many opportunities to travel, explore and adventure in this life. I was born in the USA, which in itself, is a blessing for our commitment to human rights and freedom, as well as the richness of our nation. I’ve had so much joy and overcome so many things which surely could have been much worse, but for the grace of God. I have great parents (one surviving), siblings and grandparents (though all have passed). My family was always nurturing and full of love. I have lifelong friends who are like family. I have eyes, ears and a heart which sees the beauty of life around me each new day. I was given the gift of not shying from hard, physical work, which had taught me a lot about myself and my own abilities. And I have a desire to learn in spite of any fears, doubts, and worries which might stop me from trying. I persevere. And none of this is my doing! It has all been because of God’s grace, mercy and for His purposes. My role as a created being is to live according to His plans and purposes, a role I have learned to accept and in which I am content.  

If you ask God to reveal His wonder in you, in others, in the world, He will! If you wonder about your own life, pray for Him to fill you with all the reminders and recollections of how He has cared for you and loved you through others and throughout your life! I’m so grateful for the richness of my life and all my blessings through His grace! Have I had it all? No. Do I have everything I would have wanted? No. But I have so much, have had so much, and am so full of gratitude, I don’t have a need to count or enumerate those things I might be missing! Let me always remain in this state, through the grace of the Lord, by the Spirit within me.