All around me I see incredible art that is as unique as my fingerprint.

Every tree that stands tall, blanketed with a soft covering of white, displays its beauty that for the other seasons of the year goes unnoticed.

I love the real. I love the vulnerable. I love the lesson of a tree – it is beautiful to bare the soul to the world while God is working on the inside, preparing that soul to bear fruit.

There are some days when I feel absolutely nothing. I just exist. And it takes hard effort to be grateful. I don’t like this about me. I think of many things for which to be grateful, but I’ve already said those things before, and shouldn’t I be able to open my eyes and see even more? Yes, I should. But for some reason, I feel nothing. Today, I would like to just skip this exercise. I have no particular reason – in fact, I have every reason to be grateful – but, it’s just one of those “I just exist” days.  I am glad that God understands this very human trait. I am grateful that even though I feel blanketed with snow and baring what I perceive to be ugly to the world, God is at work inside and continues to prepare me to bear fruit one day.

I am grateful for naked trees that are more beautiful in the winter when their inner beauty is exposed.

I am grateful for assisted living facilities and nursing homes and rehab hospitals and for the people who are called and gifted to care for our loved ones when we are not able.

I am grateful for our small group friends who turned our Sunday evening into such joy.

I am grateful for parents who are raising their children right now who are wonderful examples and role models, who have chosen to parent intentionally with boundaries surrounded with love and covered with grace, parents who are not entitling their children to have everything they think they need, but teaching responsibility, work ethic, and consequences for choices, however hard those consequences may be.

I am grateful for Cosmo.

I am grateful for young adults who are respectful to others. And I am grateful for young adults who act appropriately, even when they think no one is watching them.

I am grateful for God’s protection on Saturday and for the reminder that life is short and not to be taken for granted.

I am grateful for ice melt on sidewalks.

I am grateful that we are not all alike, that there is a 30-something woman at church who said “Super cute!” multiple times as she described items in the boutique at the women’s conference and made me guffaw out loud.

I am grateful for the splendor of falling snow in the quiet calm of the night.

I am grateful for the smell of a neighbor’s dryer air, infused with the aroma of really pleasant dryer sheet.

I am grateful for texting with Dennis.

I am grateful for the Huxtable family – even though they weren’t real, they were quality TV each week for 30 minutes.

I am grateful that I don’t have to eat quinoa beet cakes, and I am grateful that I have no friends who would make me.

And I am grateful for the desire to simplify and for organizations who like other people’s stuff, which makes it so easy to box/bag it up and donate to a great cause.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak.
– Hans Hoffman