GIVING THANKS

by Anna Arnett

I won't be blogging again before we celebrate Thanksgiving, but for all of us, every day is (or should be) a day of giving thanks. Even with our struggles, temptations, hard times, broken promises, depressed feelings, and all the gamut of problems that seem to be created just to crowd into our lives, we still have even more good things to be thankful for. Let me skim over a few.

The blessing of knowing we are actually children of our Heavenly Father, that we lived before our earthly birth, and that we'll continue to live after death, is our prized possession.

Of knowing the plan of salvation given us by our Savior, Jesus Christ, and extended to all.

Of being able to think, talk, write, comprehend, and the blessing of language -- words with which to share our feelings, and our talents with others.

The blessing of humor -- of love -- of a beautiful earth with all its variety of color, texture, flora, fauna -- of family, friends, neighbors, teachers, etc.

I'm thankful for being born at this particular stage in the scheme of things. To be born in a time of ease and relative prosperity, to have experienced the great depression, a second world war, the explosion of technology and of the spread of the gospel.

For cars to drive, computers to speed up composition and editing, planes to get us around the world in countable hours, rather than months, for cell phones and emails, for instant almost anything, including pictures. For speed when we want it.

I'm thankful for leisure, for comfort -- a good bed, a roof overhead, for heat and air conditioning, for vacuums, minute meal preparation, running water, indoor bathrooms, automatic heat, comfortable beds, television and DVD's, iPods, instant cameras, a plethora of books.

Last, but perhaps among the best of all, I'm grateful for my membership in ANWA, for the joy, purpose, and enrichment I receive, and hopefully share.

In the midst of this writing (which I thought I had lost, but stumbled on how to find it again) I re-read three or four of the blogs I'd posted earlier this year in January, February, and March. I know I was committed to these blogs, and I'm so glad I wrote them when they were fresh and new, rather than having to try to resurrect feelings of years ago -- like I'm doing with my current WIP, where I'm struggling to remember just how my life and feelings were back in the late 1950's. Many, if not most of you weren't even born then. Details vanish. But I'm happily grateful for the things I do remember.

Life is still wonderful. I expect it to stay pretty well that good, even if times get really rough. Life is a gift to treasure, and I still believe if we look for something good we'll always find it. (Remind me of this when I grumble.)