Gratitude

I am about to turn 46, and I have been receiving best wishes from all over the world today from people I have never met. I am blown away because I don't really do the birthday thing, but I have been reading your posts and thinking about receiving blessings and such, so I am compelled to receive them. It's just that I was unprepared for the emotional impact that they are having on me. I confess that I don't always follow the suggestions I offer in this blog, for reasons that are not readily apparent :)

See, I come from a long line of service-type people. My father and mother always taught me to be a servant, and while I know it has aided me in my perspective of what it means to give, I have only recently acquired the ability to truly receive. I am so thankful for them, and the fact that they are in such great health. I am grateful today for so many things. I have a beautiful wife who thinks I am "all that and a bag of chips." (That's southern speak for she thinks I am the greatest.) I have a son who has literally broken the mold in that he has, and will continue to achieve at levels unprecedented in my experience. I have best friends who have shown me the kind of acceptance that until I met them, I had only read about in the hundreds of books that I have devoured looking for just that :)

Now, it appears that I have new friends, and these friends do not specifically realize the ways in which they are contributing to my becoming who I really am. I would love to list all of them and link you to their particular sites but I am fearful of missing one or two, so I am hesitant. I will link you to two of the many that I visited today. The first is from Tammy. She shares her day via her blog, and today's post spoke to me deeply. Thanks Tammy.

The next one of them is from my first and now my best blogger friend. His name I do not know. I have been calling him Ari (he has not divulged his real name), and he is from the Philippines. He claims to have a dark side, but with as much light as he obviously possesses, I think I can handle it. He goes by the name Hanging on a Hyphen. He is a brilliant writer with a great mind. He is also very giving and full of surprises. Thanks again... whatever your name is.

I have to run now. Evening celebrations have sprung up in spite of my desire to keep my birthdays quiet. I receive it all, and this year for the first time since I was a kid, I am going to savor it, and cherish it in my heart.

Gratitude. A simple word offering the promise of new beginnings. I feel brand new today.

I feel at peace. -- jb