A week from today, I will have spent fifteen minutes eating a meal that required fifteen hours of preparation, six people to prepare, and a dozen or so serving dishes.

Is it worth it? You betcha. To be surrounded by my family, to celebrate, and to be grateful? Oh, yes. Sometimes,  I simply watch my grown children as they talk to and laugh with one another.  I delight in the generosity of God’s grace that makes it all possible, and for the treasure that those moments are to me. And I am so achingly aware of the rush of time,  the winds of years brushing by me, impossible to stop them. So, I tell my heart to move in slow motion, to capture the smiles, the hugs and the sound of their voices.

This week has been a challenging one for me. In the past few days, I’ve rehearsed saying, “Would you like fries with your order?” and contemplated Wal-Mart blue as a fashion statement. But more about that another time.

For this next week, I am going to make a list of everything for which I am grateful. And I’m going to read it everyday to remind myself that, above all things, I’d have to build an ark to ride out the deluge of gifts God has given me.

What am I grateful for:

1. family
2. friends
3. Saran Wrap
4. extra-fine point gel pens

Okay, not so profound, but it’s a start. What about you?