Thankfulness

November is my favorite month of the year.  I love everything about it.  I love the chill that invades the air.  The beautiful colors that the trees turn.  The smells of pumpkin, spices, and fireplaces burning wood in the air.  I love the FOOD of fall…. chili, pumpkin pies, sausage cheese balls, casseroles and chex mix.   I even love the fact that daylight savings time ends and it gets dark earlier.  I can get in my pj’s early, and relax with my family in my cozy little house without feeling like I’m supposed to be out doing something because it’s still daylight out!   Of course my favorite sport, football is on in November too!!  There is nothing quite so relaxing to me than curling up on the couch and watching football on the weekends.  LOVE IT! 

On top of ALL that, November also has my favorite holiday, which is Thanksgiving.  Yes, I LUV me some Christmas, but Thanksgiving is even cooler, because it’s JUST about surrounding yourself with family and friends and remembering to be truly grateful for what the Good Lord has brought to you.  Someone once told me that it’s impossible to be depressed and truly grateful at the same time, because those two emotions are too conflicting to exist together.   I think there might be some truth to that.  When I start feeling down, it always lifts me up to take an honest inventory of my life and realize how good I really have it.  

Some people say that it’s not good to compare yourself or your life to others, but I think at times it can be a good thing.  The problem that usually occurs with comparing is that we tend to compare ourselves to people who have MORE than we have.  Why do we always do that?   The truth is there are A LOT more people who have less than we have, but we don’t seek those people out to compare our lives against.  We always go the other way and compare to someone who has more money, a bigger house, a cuter figure, more fashionable clothes, smarter kids, or nicer cars.  We seek out people who seem to cook better, perform easier, exercise more diligently, have jobs that seem cooler.  People who seem to just have a better life than we do.  DON’T FALL FOR IT FRIENDS!!   If we are going to spend our time in comparison, there are WAY more folks who have so much less than we do to compare our lives against.  Believe me, if you really look around at the rest of the world, you would see that we all have it pretty darn good in this country. 

Did you know that if you make $25,000 a yr or more, you are one of the richest people in the world??  Seriously.  You are sitting in the top 10% of richest people.  I found this site the other day and you can see exactly where you land as far as your wealth compared to the rest of the world.  I’ll bet you will be really surprised at where you land.

http://whoarethejoneses.org/ 

I think our happiness is directly related to our gratefulness and I hope and pray that this Thanksgiving, you will all find things around you that you are truly grateful for.  Things that MATTER.  Honestly, what matters to me is that I’m surrounded by friends and family who love me and support me.  I would much rather have the people I love gathered around me, squished all around my small dining table, eating our modest food and laughing about life than to be sitting all alone in a beautiful mansion eating filet mignon.  I think most of us would agree on that.   To me, the secret to a happy life is about relationships that are meaningful. Relationships with my family, friends, and my Lord, Jesus Christ.  Right now, I'm SO grateful to have each one of those in my life.  They sustain me and keep me going when at times I feel like I can't find it in my own strength to do so.  We all need to be surrounded by that, right?

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day, full of love, laughter and tryptophan.  I mean, we all need a nice nap after our turkey, right?  J   

What about you guys?  What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving season?