hope

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. ~Anne Lamott

Some years it's quite easy to give thanks, and other years it's a bit harder. I'm settled and happy this year... despite this (at times) gut-wrenching waiting period that will determine our future.

I've got it good right now. But so many others don't. Enter: Hope.

I have two dear friends who are suffering today. Their reality is deep grief. One grieves the death of her mother. The other grieves the death of a dream. But in both cases hope lingers around the corner. For my friend who lost her mommy, mourning will turn to joyful memories. Grief will not fade, but the thick ink she has to swim through over the next few days will begin to thin out and clear up and hope will burst through with new life. For my friend who lost her dream... the dream will simply take another form. The original dream morphs into a new path, and new beginning, new hope in how a family will be formed. Hope always exists and always prevails. Even when it isn't apparent, for awhile.

I'm thankful to be on this journey with so many of you. Real life. It's messy, no? But worth the strife.

{also, to be honest, I'm thankful to be staying home for thanksgiving this year. Sorry in-laws, but sometimes the sanity of a mother of three children (to ensure their health and safety) trumps your desire to see us on this holiday, and is quite worth the offense that may occur. I'm so, so happy to be HOME!}

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melodie Beattie