Thankful Thursday!

You cannot be grateful and bitter.
You cannot be grateful and unhappy.
You cannot be grateful and without hope.
You cannot be grateful and unloving.
So just be grateful.
Author Unknown


I sure hope that you all have had a wonderful week and that you had a fantastic and safe holiday, if you do/did celebrate Independence Day. I hope that you have recognized more things to be grateful for and that you expressed some sort of gratitude for those things. :)

This week I've realize my gratitude for...

America - I love America! Sometimes I hate the ideas that some Americans have but I'm flipping thrilled that we are allowed to have them. I know that we make many mistakes and that many other parts of the world think that we have it all wrong but, compared to other countries, we are sort of brand spanking new! I think that we're sort of okay for only being 236 years old. I don't know, I'm happy to be here. And I get that we are just getting the gist of things.

Independence Day - The 4th of July is in my top five favorite holidays. I love fireworks and I love the summer and I love people gathering together to have a good time. I don't really look at the holiday as a day to celebrate our independence from England, obviously I have a hard time separating myself from England. I look at Independence Day as a reminder that we survived. And we all know how excited I get over survival!

My Sense of Adventure- If you know me personally, you know that I have no concept of time or distance. To me everything is just a five minute drive or a quick flight. I am so thrilled that I have the guts and the opportunity to go out and see things. I know sometimes my ideas are wacky and people may think that I'm a bit daft for what I do. But over the last few weeks people have thrown the word "brave" at me. I never looked at it that way. That might be because I have had the words "crazy" and "insane" thrown at me. Oh and let's not forget "stupid" either! But maybe brave is a term I could work with. I love to go out and see things. I love that I can say I've been here and there. I don't really think about it while I'm doing the adventuring, but in hindsight I'm kind of cool! :) I just know so many people who are afraid of flying or who do not want to take any unnecessary chances and just miss sooooo many things. I'm glad that I can say that have that going for me at least. But maybe I am this way because it was thought, once upon a time, that I wouldn't be doing anything. So, anyway, Universe, thanks for hooking me up with a Dora the Explorer attitude.

My Different Groups of Friends - I am lucky enough to have a few different groups of friends from different parts of my life (Marywood, England, Work etc). I never realized this was something to be grateful for until Kate and I were discussing if other people had other friends. I realized I did! Although most of my friends know about most of my friends, I rarely see all of those friends together. I'm grateful for this for many reasons but for today, well this last weekend actually, I found myself grateful for it because having different friends all over provides opportunities for visits all over! Dann and I left Saturday morning to meet my friends Jenn and Francesca in NYC (and they pretty much grew up there so they knew everything to do). After seeing Avenue Q (hysterical) he and I went up to Connecticut for the night and made our way to Boston where I met up with my cousin Jerusha for a meal and some laughs. I wish that the people who paid the chick who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" would pay me to go on adventures to friends! I could make my way to Texas and Florida. Oh Russia, I'd see you too! :-D

Faith - It's a "terrible" thing that Dann and I found ourselves in by falling in love with each other when we clearly live on other sides of the world. We both trust that it will all fall together even though we aren't always sure how. I guess having faith is what it's all about in a situation like this. So even though my faith is different than your faith, I'm am certain that the Universe wouldn't blindside me, again. ;) Was it Tug McGraw who said "You just gotta believe?"

What are you thankful for?