Gratitude for the Little Stuff

I’ll be brief, because it’s the time for Thanksgiving feasts and fellowship, not for my yammering. But I wanted to share how this new season in my life has taught me a new gratitude for things I once overlooked. Especially the small things.

I grew up homeschooled. So I’m not used to being away from home. But now I work a full-time job. I didn’t realize how much I valued the banter and deep discussions that happened in our schoolroom. It’s weird without the constant presence of my mom and siblings.

Plus, working a full-time job gives me renewed respect for my dad. He works from eight to well past five most days and then spends his Labor Day weekend building a gazebo for us. How many weekends has he spent up in taking one-on-one time with us kids, or in fixing, repairing, building, cooking, serving? How does my mom find the energy to make dinner after teaching and planning and writing all day, as well as the time to buy me cute little decorations for my desk and send me pictures of the dog doing silly things? How does she have the focus to think of all the things I’ll need that I don’t even know about, like shoes with arches and chocolate for my drawer?

I miss studying, and school. (Not math, but most everything else.) I had some amazing teachers and lots of good Socratic discussions. I’m one of those weird kids who actually really likes to learn, even if it’s random things. I find my coworker’s explanations of the asbestos remediation process interesting, because it’s something I’ve never heard before. I listen to audiobooks and Hillsdale lectures while doing mindless tasks.

And I miss getting to do it with my family. My mom and I had the best literature discussions, and sometimes all of us kids and Mom would be chatting away full steam, with quips and jokes flying left and right while we still managed to have a deep, meaningful conversation.

After being at work all day, suddenly returning to a hot homecooked meal, a couch, and Jeopardy means so much more than it used to.

But this is not to complain about my job. It’s just that this new contrast in my life has shown me things I was overlooking before. It’s an amazing job, better than anything I was expecting. The pay and the people are great, and God seriously opened doors for me to get there. I’ve learned useful skills and my boss is totally cool with us putting an earbud in when we’re doing mindless work. She’s also just straight-up amazing, sweet, and forgiving. You’d have to mess up pretty dang hard, and on purpose, too, to get reamed out by her, and she encourages us to learn and build skills.

Also, there’s a dog. How sick is that?

Weekends, too, are something I’m immensely more grateful for. Weekends mean sleep. 😊 And time away from the desk. Variety and time to write or take a walk or do something with the family.

And friends.

It’s hard to be away from them, not seeing them every week like I used to. But I’m blessed to have a workplace where we laugh a lot. And thanks to the additional blessing that is internet access, I can keep in touch.

Change is hard, especially big life changes, thresholds, and coming-of-age moments.

But God is faithful in them. His everday blessings don’t let up.

It could be the fresh air after being inside all day.

It could be a game night to catch up with friends.

It could be a chapter of a good book before bed.

Touching kindness in the form of orange chicken from a coworker. A wet dog nose bonking your arm. Podcasts on the drive home. Good movies. Silly conversations.

Heck, it’s a blessing just to wake up every morning alive and healthy. It’s a blessing to have a bed to sleep in, and food to eat, and a job to earn money. And hey, a desk job can be boring, but there are definitely things I’d much rather not be doing, difficult messy jobs that society needs and shoulds value, but that my squeamish self is glad I don’t have to do.

It sounds silly, but reminding yourself that it could be worse is actually helpful sometimes. It could be worse, but it isn’t. Because God is good. And when you think about it, you’ll realize you’ve got it better than you know.

So even if things are tough this Thanksgiving, if you’re missing loved ones or in a hard life stage, remember that there are still little blessings sprinkled throughout every day, every moment, even if they’re not big and flashy and easy to see.

As For King And Country sings, ‘it’s a fine, fine life.’

God is good. God is so good.

So let’s give Him all the thanks.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, folks.

Cheers!