
I know I have a lot to be thankful for. And yet, it seems to get lost in the every day. The hustle and bustle we call life. I try to be thankful, I try to give thanks, but some of the things I take the most for granted are the things that I forget about. The things that if I didn’t have them in my life, my life would not be a happy one. So why is it that we take so many things for granted when really we should be aware of how different our lives would be without them?
I think of the last few days in the aftermath of the not guilty verdict out of Ferguson and how I take for granted that my white son will never be accosted by police, unless he deserves to be. It’s amazing what you take for granted when you are white.
I think of the millions of children who go to schools that are underfunded, falling apart, and riddled with inequities, and how I take for granted the incredible school my daughter goes to.
The couples who fight to pay their bills every day, whereas my husband and I certainly have to save and budget and not buy, but we are never faced with the choice of heat or water or which one we should pay.
I take that for granted.
Family and friends who get mad when you can’t see them enough because life is too busy and it has been too long.
Ugly mini-vans that are safe to drive in winter and can fit all of our crazy lives.
7th graders who are invested in our classroom, who think I am ok, who don’t hate everything we do.
Colleagues who actually like you and think you have worth.
Plenty of food to eat, to fit even the pickiest 2 year old’s appetite.
Health insurance that doesn’t stop, even when faced with more than $500,000 in medical bills because a baby decided to come 10 weeks early.
I take that for granted.
So today, I am thankful, but not for those big incredible things I get to do, but those essential ones that make my life my life. Those tings I take for grated even though they should be the first in line whenever thanks is given out. What are you thankful for?