^ I was up
early this morning. As I headed down the hall towards the front of the house I
noticed that the outside light that’s hooked up to a motion detector was on. I
went to the front door and flicked on a section of porch lights as I looked out
the window.
^ We have a
LOT of porch lights since our porch goes around the entire house. Seriously,
small planes could land in the field to the north of us we throw out so much
light. There wasn’t anything on the porch, down the steps or in front of the house.
Miss Winnie, a neighbor’s Beagle, will sometimes sit on the front porch steps
until I come out and give her a treat. That would have been way early for Miss
Winnie though. She doesn’t usually show up until the afternoon or at dusk. Her
people don’t want me giving her too many treats since she has a bit of a weight
problem.
^ There wasn’t
anything there. The wind was blowing hard enough to be moving our wind chime
and shade curtains that I was supposed to take down at the end of summer so much
that the motion detector was responding. It was a cold wind too.
^ I was
keeping a low profile so as not to disturb Kyra and Gadget.
^ If it’s
technically morning and they’re up then they want to be fed and their feed time
was still a couple of hours off. If we feed them early then that becomes their
new feed time and they reset their little internal clocks. If I don’t feed them
then I spend the next couple of hours avoiding eye contact with them as they
try and use their doggie mind powers on me to guilt me into going ahead and
feeding them since they haven’t eaten in days.
^ So I just
sat down in my leather easy chair, got out the lapboard that I made for Dad
when we were taking care of him and got my laptop from the table to do a little
important work. After logging onto Facebook I read in a post where some friends
lost a beloved pet. Immediately sad. Made me think of losing Old Fella and of
course that made me tear up. Hey, I know combat veterans that cry when they
lose a beloved pet like that. Shelley and I had just been talking about Old
Fella last night before bed.
^ What I also
noticed was that they gave thanks for the mercy extended by a stranger, knowing
that their girl wasn’t suffering and that they didn’t have to always wonder
what happened to her. Good times with their friend were also mentioned.
^ The train of
life thought reminded me of when my dad passed away at a young age. I said then
that we could be sorry at every future holiday that he would miss or be
thankful for the holidays and time that we did have with him. We could remember
his laugh. We could do what we’re supposed to do and keep on going the best we
can.
^ We’re
believers so we give thanks several times a day in our prayers. But you don’t
have to be a believer to give thanks. And when I say believer I mean believer
of any faith.
^ I usually
start my prayer off with “heavenly Father”. It’s a habit of assigning gender to
God from my Southern Baptist days. (I’m still in recovery.) Creator or Creator
God works just as well. It’s immaterial to me if you use heavenly Mother. I’m
starting to wander again. Anyway, a typical prayer for me goes:
^ “Heavenly
Father, thank you for the many blessings that you have given us. Thank you for
this day. Forgive us/my/our sins. Guide us and watch over us as we continue on
our journey. Help us make the right decisions. (Shelley will often say
“illuminate our path”. I really like that.) Thank you for this food before us.
Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies. Let us be ever mindful of the
needs of others. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
^ When I’m
praying for myself I will usually ask to be a better husband, friend, father,
to make the right decisions in life, to listen better, to act better, to be
more understanding and tolerant. When I pray for the President, any President,
I pray for the same things that I pray for myself.
^ There are
all sorts of variations and things that we add in our prayers. We will often
give thanks for friends and family, specific events or people as well as ask
for something for a particular person or group in need.
^ I believe
that the important thing it to look every day for things to be positive about
and thankful for even if it’s just having a roof over your head, food to eat or
water to drink. I remember being taught to be thankful even when we were poor
and living in three rooms. I remember being thankful that my older brother
passed quickly and without suffering too much. Being thankful just isn’t about
the material things that surround us. Being thankful should start with the
basics of life and working from there.
^ You don’t
have to be religious to be thankful during the day. Set aside times to think
about where you are and where you need to go to get to place where you can be
thankful if you aren’t. If you’re with beloveds then be thankful with them.
Take the time to tell someone that you’re thankful that they’re in your life.
^ Since I am a
believer I am thankful for the love I’ve known and for the life I’ve lived that
brought me to this good place. I’m thankful for Shelley, friends and family.
I’m thankful for a God whose son taught us that Love is what is most important.