Plenteousness

There’s a passage that we sang in church last week, it comes from Psalm 122, it says:

“Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy place.”

Plenteousness. What a great word.

The dictionary defines plenteous as existing in plenty, and in the days before Thanksgiving, I am feeling pretty deep in plenteousness.

This feeling of plenteousness comes from pausing and taking stock in all that is good in my life. That reflection gives me such gratitude and makes me:

• Grateful for friends who talk and listen and care and help me along this path of life. Grateful for laughter that breaks through the most grey of days like a ray of sun. And when laughter and friendship are present together, well, it’s plenteousness defined.
• Grateful for the beauty of words and for the wonder of books, the way they feel in my hand, the sound of the turning page. Yet I am also grateful for blogs and email and Skype and the way these technologies connect me to people whom, had I lived in another time, I wouldn’t get to know. Very grateful.
• Grateful for a daughter that is getting older and is changing and rolling her eyes more and more every day. I am especially grateful that although she is growing and changing, she still finds comfort in my hug.
• Grateful for my healthy, strong, changing body and for the good health of those I love.
• Grateful for the way my husband can finish my sentences and laughs at my jokes before I say them. Grateful for a relationship that grows and changes overtime.
• Grateful for Estee Lauder lipstick in Cranberry that magically makes me look like I have really white teeth, eight hours of sleep and have never touched a glass of wine (really, it’s that good!)
• Grateful for a lifetime of good humor (see #1) and laughter that has left sweet wrinkles around my eyes and mouth. And grateful for RoC Deep Wrinkle cream to spackle them in.

And you gentle reader, I am so very grateful to you for your presence here.

What are you thankful for this year?