Grateful

I'm grateful for many things in life and I don't always remember to say that.

I'm grateful that the peas have decided to grow with a vengeance and are now almost three feet tall.  In the last week they've started blooming.  In another month or so I should have a bumper crop harvest.

I'm grateful for the rains that are coming about once a week.  While they are driving my son crazy because he can't go outside, they are providing the gardens with a better watering than can be provided by me.  And the plants are truly appreciating it if their growth is anything to go by.  The peppers are all growing up.  As are the beans and tomatoes.  The potatoes are exploding up and will be needing more soil before long.

I'm grateful for the gifts that come from nature even when I'm not expecting them.  The chocolate mint that escaped its planter and is now gracing pots to be bartered or given away.  The strawberry runners that have escaped their bed and are also now in pots.  Those are set aside to encourage good growth so that when I move in a few years I will have plenty of healthy plants to go with us.

I'm grateful for the random people who have graced my life in the past week or so.  Offering help even if I was unable to accept it.  And those who offered and did help, with no thought for payment but just because they themselves were in similar situations and understood.

I'm just as grateful for all of the random people who have appeared in our lives at different times.  Whether it was to help, or sometimes hinder, they were all there for a purpose.  Some to bring peace, others to teach lessons.  Although, I hope I have learned those lessons well.  And I hope for future lessons to be much gentler.

I'm grateful for the friends who came and got even more plants to grace their yards and preventing me from killing them.  And their offers to help when I need to get things done in the yard.  And the one who truly surprised me with a garden membership for my son and I.  (Which will get very well used!)

I'm grateful for all of the lessons taught to me, as I grew up, by caring parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends.  Many of those lessons have helped me to keep going when I was ready to fold.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the severe stubborn streak that seems to be embedded in our family's genes.  Honestly. ;-)   Some of those family members are not here anymore.  Or are they....since their lessons are still an active part of my life.  And sometimes I swear they are looking over my shoulder and whispering in my ears, just to keep me on track.

I'm grateful that someone, somewhere in the universe, listens when I close my eyes and offer up pleas for things that we need (and sometimes just want).  Then places those things in my path whenever possible at prices that I can afford.  And sometimes at prices that remind me of the difference between need and want. And rarely, but just enough, provides a surprise bit of income sometimes to just keep us afloat for that tiny bit longer.

And while sometimes I close my eyes and dream of unlimited money or wild shopping sprees for necessities that don't have a monetary limit.  I just as often close my eyes and wish for a partner for my heart and soul.  But even more frequently, I close my eyes and say "Thank you" for what I do have.  And I hope that the gratitude that suffuses my body, mind and soul during those moments truly is expressed to those unseen ears and eyes.  Because I know that without those unseen eyes and ears, things could be much much worse.

So here's to being grateful.  Here's to hoping that I will continue to have positive reasons to be grateful (hopefully without negatives).  Here's to life, an adventure that exists for us all.

(Nothing is wrong.  I just felt a soul deep need to express how grateful I am for the blessings that have come our way and that attempt to balance the negatives of life.)