I could be thankful for a whole host of things today: Sundays off, good books, leftover pot roast & grilled cheese dinner, my cozy monogrammed blanket…but I’m gonna be thankful I’m not Bear Grylls’ wife. Have you ever watched his show? He is a MANIAC. He eats SCORPIONS. RAW. And rolls around in mud for wildfire protection. And kills rattlesnakes with a stick. And makes rafts from oil barrels & ancient Styrofoam. And sleeps suspended in discarded fishing nets high in the trees. And that’s not all. That’s barely the tip of the iceberg…or should I say glacier……
Thankful for another day. Just now, scrolling through my newsfeed, I saw one of the “billboards” (as I like to call them) that said something to the effect of, “be thankful you are alive, someone, somewhere is fighting & drawing their last breath.” I also like the one that says “if we all took our problems & threw them in a pile to be doled out, we’d snatch our own back up.” So, I know that this day will be filled with drivers lost in space, customers lost in themselves, & probably a lunch that’s lost, period, but I know it’s quite a wondrous thing to just be alive, & I am grateful for it. Happy day, y’al…
Alright. This one’s personal, y’all. Today I am thankful for my momma, my grandmother, and University of Tennessee football. If that sounds like a strange combination, you must have missed my status a couple of weeks ago. This is my Grandmother’s grave today. She’s been gone just over five years. I am constantly reminded of her. She LOVED football. I mean, she loved it like a man does (no offense ladies, but you know what I mean). Every time I watch a ballgame I think of her hollerin’ & being on the edge of the couch when it was 3rd down for the opposing team: “Hold ’em boys, hold ’em…” Yes, that’s a football on her headstone. Underneath, it says “Go Vols!” I’m not even kidding. I’m thankful mom takes care of her grave because Lord knows I can’t. I’d be crying & snotting so hard the funeral directors would have to drive me home. I’m thankful these women taught me how to understand the game, & how to be a good sport. And today is a great example of “I’m for Tennessee & whoever’s playin’ Florida.” True story. Go Dawgs. And GO VOLS…
Oooh! Thirty Days of Thankfullness is here again 🙂 I know some of you don’t particularly care for it, but I much prefer opening my facebook to find my status feed full of blessings & pleasant thoughts. So here I go. Thankful today that I live in East Tennessee. It is truly beautiful this time of year. (Actually, I find it beautiful most of the year) It was a brilliant day, with sunshine so bright it hurt my eyes & made me squint. The leaves are absolutely gorgeous, & the temperature is just right. We have fresh, drinkable, clean water all around us. We are close enough to the most-visited national park in the states to visit it as often as we want. Although the tourists are a pain, they do make Sevier County one of the more fortunate & funded counties around. I’m thankful that people in this area are not ashamed to ask for prayer for themselves, their family, or a complete stranger if they need it. I’m thankful for chickens crowing, frogs croaking, & locusts buzzing in the late afternoons. I’m thankful for porch swings to drink sweet tea on, a hometown small enough that I still run into people I know at the grocery store, & high school football games & plays that everyone still attend. I don’t even mind getting behind tractors occasionally, because farmers mean food. (And I love food.) I’m proud…
Today I am thankful for a couple of brilliant ladies! My work momma, Robin, who has to watch every move I make. I very nearly wore the tags on my sweater to the big to-do annual meeting tonight. She saved me a lot of embarrassment & spared me from being called Minnie Pearl all night. I am also thankful for my good friend Christy who is also my hairdresser. She helps me & my unruly mop the best she can. I’m totally at ease with her & is a lot of fun to be around. Stylists double as therapists, you know. My hair was one of two things I didn’t worry about on my wedding day. Thats saying a lot because I am a World Class Worrier. Fortunate to have these two women in my life for many years. Blessed to call them dear friends. 11-8-12 7:56pm…
This was one of those turnaround posts. One that people loved and shared and complimented me on for days after. And made me consider getting serious about my writing. Today I’m thankful I live in the south. Can y’all even imagine me in Yankeeland? I’m thankful for the flowering dogwoods, magnolias, and crepe myrtles. I’m thankful for the summer days where it’s too hot to even swim, {forget about getting married 😉}I’m thankful for the accents that use every letter in the word. I’m thankful that most people still have enough manners to hold a door open or let you in front of them in line if you’ve only got an item or two. I’m thankful that we have people willing to keep history alive by re-creating the War of Northern Aggression. I’m thankful for the music of cicadas in the late evenings. I’m thankful for all the little festivals celebrating bar-be-que, apples, & catfish. I’m thankful for fried food, sweet tea, cornbread, and beans. I’m thankful that we’ve captured the hearts of everyone who passes through. I’m thankful that we have a church on every corner. I’m thankful for days spent fishing for trout on the foggy Clinch river, hiking and tripping over the mountains in the Great Smokies, & going even further…
I participated in the challenge on Facebook for a couple of years until the griping got to me. Granted, most people weren’t very creative, but give me a break. It was nice to see people being grateful. Alright, 30 Days of Thankfulness are here again. I challenge you, facebook friends, to do the same. Its much nicer than reading all the down-and-out posts that have become so commonplace. These will be in no order of importance, just whatever comes to mind on a particular day. There is no limit on how many things you can be thankful for 😉 So, today, November 1st, I’m thankful for my momma. Because she did something for me from day one that has influenced me every day since: she read to me while she was pregnant. Not only that, she took me on countless trips to the library after I learned to read myself. Seymour’s first very modest library was located in our bank’s parking lot in a camper & I remember making a couple of trips there a week. You could only checkout like, five books at a time & I was blowing through them. Soon, even the Sevierville library didn’t have any I hadn’t read. I still love to read and spend a few hours every day buried in one book or another. Luckily, Johnny understands. He saw straight-away there was no hope for prying me away…
One week into the month of Thankfulness & today I am thankful for Monday off, & I am thankful for a house to clean. Although at this moment I’m sitting on the couch watching Friends. The next year: Today I am thankful that Obama can’t run for President again. I am thankful that most of my friends voted. I am thankful that for the most part, we all voted whichever way we wanted & didn’t get into heated arguements about our beliefs. The nation is divided down the center on most issues, it seems. I hope that we can live peaceably for the next few years & don’t become a victim of terrorism again, & I pray that we don’t have another Civil War. I am also thankful that all this rain isn’t snow. 11-7-12 10:36 am…