What I am Thankful for in week 8

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and happily I don't have to cook a darn thing (thank you, Auntie Celia, and the rest of the Schumacher clan!!).  Of course, now is the time of year in which people tend to be thankful for what they've been blessed with over the past year, and quite frankly, Thanksgiving is more up my alley that Christmas.  Giving and receiving presents is fun, but Thanksgiving gets people thinking about their family, friends, and all the good things we have in our lives.  And, we get lots of great food!

This year, so many people I know, myself included, had such a rough time, whether financially or otherwise.  I know I have asked myself "are things ever going to look up for me" so many times since January, I've lost count. It makes you very jaded, introducing a "what now?" attitude towards life.  And with each challenge, each setback, each disappointment, it's a little harder to bounce back and move on.  People say that attitude is everything, but it sure is hard to have a positive outlook when the hits just keep coming.

So, what am I thankful for, in a time where it's hard to find anything positive?  Obviously, I'm thankful for my family, my friends, my dog, my home, etc.  I'm thankful for all the extremely hard lessons I learned this year, the ones that broke my heart and left me questioning who I am.  I'm thankful for the new people I've met, the ones who have challenged me to be better than I was.  I'm thankful for the risks I took by stepping outside my comfort zone.  Highly unpleasant, highly nerve-wracking, but so totally worth it.  I'm thankful that I'm still breathing, walking, seeing, smelling, hearing, even in the moments where it feels like that's all I have.  I'm thankful for having the strength to push beyond what I think I can handle, where I think my threshold is, and emerge victorious, with my head held high.  I'm thankful for internal arguments that "what makes you grow" wins over "what's easy".  But most of all,  I'm thankful that each day I open my eyes,  I have another chance to do better, to be better, to live better.