I am grateful for hunger pains. I think it would be a very bad thing to not feel hunger.

I am grateful that I can alleviate these hunger pains so easily. Others cannot.

I am grateful for the smell of a baby.

I am grateful for hills that make my legs work harder.

I’ve been aware of words lately. This morning’s word: bittersweet. I can think of so many situations in my life that live up to this oxymoron. It is a good thing that the bitter stuff in my life also has a sweetness to it.

My brother Ron sent me a book almost two years ago that I had put on the shelf, intending to read. Good intentions… But I decided to begin reading it, and I am so sad that I waited for two years to do so. This passage reminds me of the word bittersweet. It is SO GOOD:

Since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy. Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally or spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the capacity to solve problems, just as in school we deliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” – from The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck

Another oxymoron? I have a love-hate relationship with early morning walking. I HATE waking up before it’s time to wake up, just to go walk in the frigid cold in the darkness of the night. HATE getting out from under the covers. HATE disturbing a really nice dream. But I LOVE the quietness of the walk, the view of the stars, the sound of the mama birds waking up their families, the companionship and conversation with Sam, and the way I feel when we return and are refreshed and awake for the day.

I am grateful for the bittersweet-ness of life.

I am grateful that in my love-hate life situations, there is a love side.

And I am grateful that soon, the neighborhood will be full of flowering trees and the flowerbeds will be overloaded with tulips.