Thanks Giving

This morning we woke to fog.
I love fog! Being from an arid climate, I find fog magical and mysterious as it blurrs the lines of the world. It softens while smoothing; it adds a perspective that is missing on a clear day. The world isn't quite so vivid and bright. It is more difficult to live outside the moment when the moment requires our focus due to the clouds floating just before our eyes.
This morning my daughter cuddled close and reminded me that she didn't want to go to her dad's this morning. Skating aside, she wanted to stay and have our traditional Thanksgiving morning pajama day. Together we noted this is our first Thanksgiving morning part in her life... and that it was a challenge and yet, it would work. She will be home for dinner. Tears exhausted the night before, and promises made to postpone the traditions, she went to her dad's.
This morning I walked in that fog. I wished the people at Starbucks a Happy Thanksgiving. I stepped out of my jar a bit and did something for others that I have wanted to do for years. I walked home happy and smiling.
It is easy to give thanks some times when life is wonderful. The birds sing, the sun shines, and happiness rains down like the most thirst quenching summer rain.
Other times, it is more difficult to find the things for which we are grateful. It seems impossible to think that perhaps it is the challenge or the situation itself for which we might give thanks. Yet it is the challenge - the difficult time - that gives opportunities for growth, learning, and choices.
Today i am giving thanks. As I sit at the keyboard, missing my daughter and our time together today, I am giving thanks for the fog, for the parade on the TV, for the weekend ahead and the magic of theater and the love of family and friends. I am giving thanks for the situation in which my daughter and I find ourselves as, despite the frustration and the hurt and the anger endured, there is opportunity for growth and enrichment. From destruction comes development; from fire, rebirth.
For all of this and so much more, I am giving thanks.

To everyone I wish you and exceptional Thanksgiving holiday!