It's Thanksgiving. Actually, my Thanksgiving day is almost over. Perhaps it just started for you? Probably. I have to admit, though, I am thankful. I am thankful for the community automatically created from being an American, living in France. I am thankful for my family who has not forgotten me, even though I live thousands of miles away. I am thankful for friends who spend time with me on Skype. I am thankful for the post office. I am thankful for the beauty of fall.
You know what else? I'm thankful for being lonely. No, seriously. Loneliness sucks, and wow, how it shows me things that I would never have seen if I was not lonely. I'm also thankful for not knowing what I am doing with my life. I mean, I pray, every day, for God to show me what the plan is, where my life is heading, what-in-the-heck my purpose here on earth is, but what an awesome opportunity. An awesome opportunity to explore myself, to explore the world, to explore what there is out there in the wide unknown.
A friend told me recently that I am a free spirit. I am thankful for that spirit, that God-given freedom to know that I can go and be anything that I want. One of my current favorite quotes, by George Bernard Shaw, says, "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
As you look at everything you are thankful for today, don't forget to send up a little thanks to the Big Lady Upstairs for the freedom to choose, the freedom to live as you decide, and the freedom to be a force of nature in your own life, instead of complaining and sniveling about the (lie) that you have no control over your own life. Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!
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