Gratitude

I have chosen gratitude as a word for the year more than once. I have plaques at home and in my office that are planted in my field of vision each day to remind me and to hold me accountable to be grateful…

For what? Grateful for my life and the opportunity to live life each day. To get to know my students and to teach-my lifelong calling. To love my family and to be a part of their lives. To watch my sons become fathers…to watch Diana find her causes in life and listen to what she cares about the most. To spend time with my grandchildren and to step into their lives whenever possible. To know them and be close to them.

To realize in life I have a God-given purpose and calling in my heart…have always had a desire to be a part of something bigger than myself…to make a difference and to be a change agent in small ways that might have significance in a larger forum at some point in time.

Gratitude…has meaning on so very many levels…

This month in my Longwood LIFE novel class we have shared stories of people who worked hard to achieve and who had a huge belief in something they cared about and saw it through…even through failure and perseverance. I’ve read several Reader’s Digest stories about gratitude that are based on hardships that led to triumph and renewed purpose and optimism. We’ve highlighted athletes who failed many times before they found victory. We’ve read about people with disabilities who have worked to strengthen their abilities in order to succeed.

And, we’ve shared our stories and connections to lessons we’ve learned…including greater appreciation for family, because we have also experienced joy and hardship and even loss of someone special to us.

So, that intrinsic and all-knowing sense of gratitude that runs deep into the fibers of our hearts-that catches us-makes our hearts skip a beat-a feeling-a realization-an affirmation-a moment in time where we feel something special while at the same time are processing why it all matters so very much to us. And, in that moment, we capture a glimpse of gratitude.

And for me, I have been thinking about gratitude. I try to hang onto all the meaningful ways I have embraced it and felt it to my core. How it surfaces in subtle ways in the present moment with life in the now and also realizing that the now would have been a missed opportunity had I not also experienced all that came before it.

If I had not given birth to Erin, we would not have not travelled down the road of adoption to find Diana in Ukraine to be her sister. I would not have thought about going to grad school in special education to figure out how to parent a child with a disability. (I loved teaching 8th grade English.) I switched jobs and found my sweet spot in self-contained special education.

I’m grateful…

To have known you, Erin…to have been challenged by you and to have grown as a human being because of your influence on my life.

And I will never, ever stop thinking about you and loving you (and writing about you!). I have moved forward in this life in so many ways and alongside others who have never met you. We are living in the present and are excited for new births in the coming days and celebrations you will miss. But, you will never be forgotten and remain present-always- in my heart…

With gratitude.❤️