Thankful

Tomorrow our home will (hopefully!) fill with the conversation, laughter and smiles of many of my American and Swedish friends as we gather to celebrate Thanksgiving.

[If you're wondering "Why tomorrow?" The quick answer: because this is Sweden, and Thanksgiving day is not a holiday.]

So, nearly every day I drop Lucas at school and then walk 30 minutes from Lucas's school to work, and then after work I reverse the trip to pick him up. I relish those walks and usually use them to plan out my day, make lists in my head (I'm a notorious list maker), or listen to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on my iPod, laughing loudly to myself the whole way down the street. Rarely do I use those trips for one too-easily forgotten purpose -- to relax. To let go of my job, my responsibilities at home and everything else that finds itself running around in my brain and just let my mind wander.

But I did it on Tuesday. No iPod. No list making.

I started, instead, to think about Thanksgiving tomorrow.... and not about the shopping that needed to be done for it or how we should fit 16 people into our modest home for a meal.

But about "thanks" and "giving".

And at the risk of sounding all sappy, I thought of how incredibly lucky I am.... so unbelievably, fate-testing, lucky. And how inexpressably thankful I am for so many things.

Sometimes, when we're discussing a sad story in the news or someone's struggle, my dad says some version of "There, but for the grace of God, go I". And isn't he right? My life could be so many things... it could be filled with sadness, despair, frustration, illness, poverty, hunger, struggle, war.

But it is not.

I have a beautiful, healthy family. And I'm not just talking about my four guys at home, but also about my parents, my brother and his family, grandpa, all of my inlaws, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews... I'm also talking about the hundreds of people I can count as "relations". And my good friends, the ones I can call on a day when I just need a smile. The ones who drop a line just to say hello.

And my amazing education, without which who knows where I'd be. My skills. My life. The smiles I can share with others every day. I'm thankful for rainy days and happy. And so much more.

And as I walked, my heart swelled with happiness.

There is so much to be thankful for.

And then I picked up Lucas and we headed home. When we got there, he took off his shoes and hat. And I was thankful for this.