In Response to Thanksgiving

Thinking back, it seem like many of the segments of my life where I've been really happy have been due to contentment with what I've got and where I am. I was thankful for my circumstances. So its apparently a pretty good way to live...focusing on what I'm thankful for. Well, darnit, here it goes.

I'm thankful for my family.

My dad, for his strength and faith, for his incessant ramblings and fascinations.

My mom, for the giving heart and gentleness and love that she set for me as an example.

My brother Jonathan, for his loyalty, his unselfishness, his dreams.

My brother Matt, for his leadership, his integrity, his wit.

My sister Angela, for her consistently positive outlook, her love in its various forms, her availability.

My brother-in-law Evan, for his follow-through, his hard love, his friendship.

My granny, for her get-it-done mentality, for her unselfishness, for her relentlessness.

...and the rest of my family for the examples they've set.

To all my friends in Murfreesboro, Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, and the places beyond and in between, for what you've turned me into. My personality is largely a conglomerate of those that have allowed me into their lives, livingrooms, and refrigerators.

To God, I am thankful for everything that I'm thankful for. While He's taken from me at times, He has given me so much more than I could ever have asked for in a lifetime of prayers. He's given me everything I've needed to be where and who I am today, to serve His perfect will, and He's apparently still not finished. I am alive for another day, and that's a good thing because I haven't paid my phone bill and I have to take a friend to the airport...