My Grateful, albeit Guilt-Driven, November List of Blessings

I must admit, I feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not participating in the November Virtual Gratitude Blitz (NVGB) of 2012.  It has been nice to learn all the things for which my Facebook friends are thankful.  Unfortunately, my nit picky nature led me to some glaring strategy gaffes in posts.  Those who posted long orations about God, family, and friends in the first few days had to get a little creative toward the month’s end.  Around mid November, I noticed the beginning of a downward spiral in the caliber of thankful posts…The topics of God and family during the first week digressed into parking spaces and clinical strength deodorant shortly after Veterans Day. I am certainly grateful for a place to park and fewer stinky people in this world, but I feel compelled to point out the obvious in an effort to promote restraint for the first days of NVGB 2013.  OKAY, OKAY… I am simply jealous of those who had the motivation and wherewithal to commit to such a monumental task.  So, to relieve my guilt, and admonish my tardiness in publishing my appreciation, I created two NVGB posts which are featured below.  They are mingled with seriousness and humor, and I pray, oh reader, you will appreciate both!!!!

 November 1^st:  I am most grateful for God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus (both the adult and baby-in-the-manger versions); the forgiveness of sins I have committed afforded by Jesus and God’s Grace to cover those I will commit in the future, probably even in this blog.  I am thankful for my wonderful family and my awesome friends; beloved pets and all creatures here on Earth, great and small, as well as those living on other planets yet to be discovered. 

I am appreciative of Earth’s basically “clean” air, the change of seasons, and the freedom of living in this country; the ability to run, walk and talk; good health; the plants that give us oxygen to breathe; and the ability to work, buy stuff, and pay bills.  I am grateful for the sunshine, and the rain, snow, sleet and hail, and for tireless US Postal workers whom weather does not detour; my mailbox, and letters from friends; the ability my friends have to write and for me to read and the teachers who taught us to read and write, and for the public schools; for buses and cars and gasoline, for all fossil fuels, and for alternative fuels, for windmills and the State of Nebraska, corn, the Cornhuskers, and all college and professional sporting teams and events that give us the excitement of competition and betting opportunities. 

I am appreciative for Las Vegas, slot machines, free drinks in casinos, and the desert...and for camels; for Hump Day and Humpy Dumpy and all other nursery rhyme characters that made my childhood both happy and scary; for “fear” and all other God-given emotions to keep us safe, and the Techies that created emoticons to express them on our Smart phones. 

I am grateful for Alexander Graham Bell, graham crackers and S’mores; for phrases like “More is less,” and for Les Nessman, old sitcoms like WKRP in Cincinnati, and for the Turkey Drop Episode; and for turkey, as well as all other fowl (those birds that can fly and those that have purpose-less wings). 

I am thankful for the Purpose-Driven Life phenomena, and those who live it, for Cousin It, and that weird Hand the lives in a box, for Box O Wine, Advil for hangovers; for clothes hangers, and the ability to ponder why some people call them “coat” hangers, yet use them for all items of clothing without explanation. 

I am thankful for the myth and hope of wrinkle-free clothing, wrinkled noses, and the ability to smell.  I am grateful for Febreze, freebees, frisbees, and dogs that wear red handkerchiefs around their necks.  I am appreciative of Native American chiefs, pilgrims who stole their land, and, of course, Thanksgiving Day.

November 30:  I am grateful for the end of November. 

 

A. Ballerina