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Let’s start this post by complaining, shall we? Life is hard. Life is a challenge. Life is not always sunny days, happy kids, and a clean kitchen. Aches and pains. Sadness and disappointment.  A strained relationship.  Illness and an unsure future. And hampers full of dirty laundry. Those things are never empty.

On any given day, at any given moment, I can be found stressing about something. Even if I seem peaceful or happy, there could be something nagging at my subconscious. This is my life, but I am not alone. I think everyone lives with their own particular burden, concern, hardship. That is life.

Finding that one thing to be thankful for, even when my insides want to rant and complain, brings me to a place of peace and even a deep abiding joy. It is a humble moment and that is a good place to be. Gratitude has saved me from being buried by anxiety and stress, from spiraling down into a place of darkness and despair. For if we can’t find something to be thankful for, how would we be able to keep going?

So sometimes, I have to dig deep into my heart and say “Thank you” but when I do, I don’t just find one thing, I find a hundred things. And then I am astounded by the blessing and gift of this life I live.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder

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God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
~William A. Ward

Thank you God for this day and for those (seemingly hundreds of) people in my house who wear those clothes that end up in those hampers.

If you would like to share your version of “Thankful Thursday” (photos or text or both) today or in the future, you can link your post to my post on Thursdays in the comments section with the title “Thankful Thursday”.