Five minute Friday: Grateful

Every Friday, I join many other bloggers at The Gypsy Mama to write about a topic of her choosing.

This week Lisa-Jo suggests:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

Five Minute Friday: Grateful

Oh, my goodness. I am grateful for so many things that I just don’t know where to begin. I thought I would talk about my gratitude for freedom to pursue my life, my dreams, my faith, in this land that I love.

However, as often happens, my writing takes an unexpected turn.

I am profoundly grateful to everyone who helped shape me into the parent I am today. I know I am imperfect, and can be annoying, and am not always the encourager I so want to be.

That being said, I am deeply grateful to my parents, for modeling what common sense, unselfish parenting looks like. I look to my siblings, and marvel at my parents’ humility in their accomplishment: we all turned out to be responsible, kind, ethical, honest human beings with tremendous senses of humor and a love of family that is deep and true.

I am grateful that I am married to a man who shares my values, who has parented alongside me for over twenty-six years, and who has supported and carried me when I became weary or really, really annoyed, or at wit’s end of parenting a challenging teen.

I am especially grateful for the relationship we have built with our daughters. We are friends now, which is wonderful, because we were intentionally not their bff’s when they were growing up. They will call and ask our advice (yes, it does happen!), and we also look to them for their thoughts.

Color me brightly, wonderfully, eternally grateful.