50 Reasons I am Grateful

1. For the courage to change and grow without fear of approval.
2. For the cowardice of a man who never came home.
3. For a family that shows and confesses love.
4. For friends who didn't mind when I actually did have to call at 3am.
5. For my best friend, my husband, my unborn baby's daddy.
6. For the sights along highway 17, headed south to Nana and Grandaddy's.
7. For the mystery and wonder of Christmas, including Santa Claus. I still believe.
8. For films, of all kinds, and the unique way they communicate the transcendent.
9. For James Taylor on a summer evening.
10. For laughter through tears.
11. For Amy Grant, who taught me how to sing my first song, without evening knowing it.
12. For Russell Crowe, well, just because...
13. For Portfolio Weekly, for inspiring me to make this list.
14. For Momma, Daddy, Sarie, Matty, and my precious husband, who are bustling around me to get Thanksgiving dinner on our family table. We've laughed so much today my face hurts.
15. For hot showers after a long workout.
16. For guitars and chords with an added 2.
17. For echoey hallways and stairwells to sing in. Try it sometime. The acoustics pull music from your throat.
18. For performance cars that hugs the curves. I will miss my mustang so much.
19. For Anne Lamott, who loves Jesus and uses the f-word. I needed her so badly when I first read Traveling Mercies in divinity school.
20. For Gloucester, VA, the sweetest little day trip my husband and I enjoyed on my last birthday. Big shout-out to Jessica's Sweet Shop and Bacon's Castle over in Surry, VA, too.
21. For Mr. Johnny Pope, my 9th grade P.E. teacher, who helped me figure out that I was worth something when I didn't really believe it.
22. For Eden's Bridge's Celtic Christmas cd, which breaks my heart every year.
23. For free classes, museums, art galleries, and outdoor festivals.
24. For graduate school, which I really miss.
25. For kittycats indoors and ducks outdoors. I need to own stock in Iams and Purina Scratch Grains.
26. For my great Uncle Halbert, who taught me how to tell good stories.
27. For cheese and butter.
28. For the terrifying gift of life, growing steadily inside me.
29. For Kempsville Diner and Vaios, our new family tradition.
30. For the public library and WorldCat, to which I no longer have access!
31. For C. S. Lewis.
32. For the way a teenager can be coaxed into smiles and conversation, if you listen well and really care to hear what they are aching to tell you.
33. For health and exercise.
34. For Geri and all my pals over at WeightWatchers. See you when the kid gets here!
35. For Saturday nights with the Brownies. The connection we have is eternal and precious to me.
36. For a well-formed turn of phrase.
37. For clever television, like Will & Grace.
38. For the privilege of travel abroad and the beauty Israel and Jordan held for us when Charlie and I traveled there two summers ago.
39. For live concerts with really good seats.
40. For Lenny Kravitz.
41. For letting go of perfectionism.
42. For Sundays no longer enslaved to church attendance.
43. For Oprah.
44. For keeping good traditions and ditching guilty obligations.
45. For the internet.
46. For my momma's fried chicken.
47. For my brother's uncontrollable laughter.
48. For dry weather in the 50s, maybe even the 40s, when the air smells a little like it's burning.
49. For kindness in strangers.
50. For grace, the kind that has nothing to do with church, offerings, outward appearance, profanity, alcohol, rules, or other people's absurd expectations.