Tag You're It

by Terri Wagner

I was recently tagged on Facebook to list things I am grateful for. Since I don't really participate in FB tags, I thought I would do it here and direct everyone there here LOL.

I'm going to place these in four categories because frankly my spiritual thanks would take up the entire Internet...seriously. So spiritually I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who is simply always there. Less often than I would have liked, God has not waved a wand and made things better or right or just or wonderful. But He has walked every path with me, including and maybe especially, the ones I shouldn't have taken.

Emotionally, I am grateful for a sturdy healthy outlook that keeps me laughing at things that first made me cry. I cannot explain what a terrific coping mechanism a "merry heart" is. I can laugh even while I am crying. It never fails to help.

Physically I have learned to be grateful for a body that keeps me alive and well. I look back at the dreadful way I always took my body for granted. I have not been blessed with a terrific looking body and so ignored it for years. Now I can see just how healthy it is and how important that is.

Intellectually, I am grateful for a sharp and quick mind, that has repeatedly gotten me into trouble. Why am I grateful for that? I learned painfully how to deal with people different from me. Smarter and less educated. I say that because I don't really believe anyone is dumb. We are all smart at different things. I know that to be true. And while my intelligence shades toward the academic side of life, I'm just as amazed at people who have more common sense than I will ever grasp.

So you are all officially ANWA tagged to be grateful for life itself. I mean apparently we fought a war to have it this way, not really sportsmen like of us to fuss about it now.