Gratitude 2019

Here we are, another holiday season in progress and the usual gratitude posts are pretty silent. I don’t think I have seen a single one all November. I am sad about that because I think this year we might need them a little more than usual.

This year has been so difficult in so many ways for so many people.

I feel like the hard years are when it becomes especially important to count whatever we can possibly call blessing. When I was a single mom struggling to just keep things going for one more day, finding gratitude was a major struggle. The reason I kept finding that gratitude is because it helped me get through the bad.

Sometimes all I could be grateful for was that my daughters were so amazing.

These days my list is longer. I try to keep a running list all year in my head and I don’t usually write one down. This year though, it seems like more people are struggling with finding something. So I am starting it off with sharing my gratitude list that has been growing in my head all year.

Ten Things for Which I am Grateful

1. So grateful for my daughters and husband and my grandchildren. (They all have to be in one at the top because I am equally grateful for all of them)

2. I am grateful for my puppies; Nimue, Wolfie, and She-ra. They make my life better in ways that people can’t and they never say anything if I cry on them.

3. A warm/cool house as needed. These were not always things that I had and having them is awesome.

4. Spectrum internet (F*ck Frontier). I went from 1 Mbps to 120 Mbps.

5. The ability to read, this saved me in so many ways. As an abused child reading was what got me through.

6. Books to read. I get to buy a lot of my books now, but shout out to libraries everywhere.

7. We aren’t in a nuclear fallout. Self-explanatory.

8. I get to write for a living. I have the privilege of getting to work on my craft and build a viable career out of this. As a girl that spent a lot of years living in various trailer-hoods, both as a child and as a single mom, this is amazing

9. I have a reliable vehicle. I was a single mom without even a high school diploma, my vehicles back then required bubblegum, duct tape, and hope. It wasn’t always enough. Literally, one of my tires flew off into the woods as I was driving.

10. We have food in the house. This was not always a given and I went without way too often to make sure my kids ate. I don’t have to do that anymore.

I have a lot more that I could list, but I am sticking with my top ten. I like it, it seems a good number.

Rhiannon