Gratitude November 15

Today I'm grateful for my life.  All of it.

Today is my birthday, a chance to reflect and give thanks and dream again.  It seems that each year I have more gratitude.  Do I have more reasons to be grateful, or is it just that my heart opens more to the beauty and love that were always there?  That's probably not an interesting or helpful question.  I'm grateful for what I can see and feel today.

This weekend I will be leading a retreat for women in Alcoholics Anonymous and AlAnon.  Their lives are a powerful blend of pain and growth, of struggle and delight.  I love being with them, being one of them.  I do not regret the painful parts of my life, because they equipped me for this ministry.  I give thanks for the growth and joy I've experienced, because they give me a message to carry.  We do not get to avoid getting hurt, and the scars do not vanish, but we do get to see them transformed into testimony of God's healing grace.

I'm grateful for my family.  Far from "perfect," but full of love and resilience and courage.
I'm grateful for my other families, my communities of love and service.  Also not "perfect," capable of hurting one another, but dedicated to another way.

I'm grateful for those who have helped me heal, those who have taught me new tricks or weaned me from old habits.  I'm grateful for those who let me share my experience strength and hope with them. I'm grateful for this amazing life that somehow keeps deepening against all rational calculation.

I'm grateful for the love of God that creates and sustains all of this, and more.  More than I can say.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for creation, and for letting me be a part of it, and aware of it.  I love you.