Day 10

Today was beautiful.  I really can’t think of a better word to describe it.  It was filled with work, laughter, family, friends, gifts and homemade goodies.  And a few tears.  I heard a quote that I love.  I believe it perfectly summarizes how I want to live out the rest of my days.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.

But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

Jim Valvano

Walking this journey of thankfulness through a painful time in my life has reminded me that life will never be without tough times or broken hearts, it’s why life is beautiful.

So today I am thankful for my beautiful broken life.

I was able to experience something I’ve dreamed of doing today as well. Kind of a bucket list thing. We took the kids to see “A Christmas Carol” at the Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. We loved it. What amazing talent, and what a great story.

It was not lost on me that the theme of this story is thankfulness. The rich Scrooge being so hurt by life experiences that he desperately sought money to try and soothe his heart. The poor Cratchit family needing so much and yet seeing the good in the riches they already had: family, love and joy.

Whatever your station, there’s much to be thankful for. Much to rejoice about this season. Even if it hurts, even if you heart wants to rebel against joy, remember what it means to have a beautiful life. Life will never be perfect, imperfections are what make it beautiful.

So today, I laughed, I cried and I shared with those I love. And I lived a little dream too. I’d say this was a pretty successful day.

We also discovered Jason’s Deli in Montgomery. I am not sure why I had never heard of this place before, but we loved it. The tables were mostly taken so we crammed into a booth with a chair at the end and ate a feast with FREE ice cream for dessert. The booth was a tight squeeze, but that just made the conversation easier to hear. Thankful.