Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

This has not been the best year for my family--far from it--but I am grateful today for so very much (more than I could ever put into words, certainly). While I miss those who are not with us today, I do cherish the happy memories I have of other days spent together. Here are two quotes from Henry David Thoreau...I think they're both quite lovely.

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. This may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.

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I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite—only a sense of existence. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession, but enjoyment. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs—is more elastic, starry, and immortal—that is your success.