First find thankfulness

Julia ♦ November 27, 2021 ♦ 2 Comments

I photographed this harvest display at Montreal Botanical Garden, May 2009.

“This is the only life you will have before you enter eternity. If you want to find joy, you must first find thankfulness. Indeed, the one who is thankful for even a little enjoys much…It does not matter what your circumstances are; the instant you begin to thank God, even though your situation has not changed, you begin to change. The key that unlocks the gates of heaven is a thankful heart.” —  Francis Frangipane

We are thankful today!  We are thankful that Jeff is not in the hospital fighting for his life, as he was one year ago.  We are thankful that he is still able to work and enjoy life.  We are thankful that Matt survived his long-dreaded fifth major heart surgery, and that it has so far been successful at controlling his ever-increasing cardiac issues.

We are thankful for our precious grandson, Grady, and for our extended families.  We are grateful for the endless blessings of life, and for the friendship, prayers and support we have found here and elsewhere.  We are keenly aware of those who are hurting today, and our hearts share their sorrow even as we acknowledge that there is always reason to rejoice.  We pray for open eyes  to see opportunities to share our bounty with those in need.

We are thankful you are here with us today!  Feel free to leave a comment sharing your joys and sorrows, as we lift our hearts in appreciation for this wonderful, complicated, difficult, rewarding gift of being alive in this world.  Happy Thanksgiving Day!

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.