giving thanks
being thankful seems relatively easy on a day like today. there are so many obvious things to be thankful for...family, friends, food, vehicles, jobs, homes, health, etc. there are so many things...where does the list get cut off? today, i want to take giving thanks to another level. a level that many people may not even think of. i am thankful for the trials and tribulations of life. because each one of those trials gave me an appreciation of the joy that follows. in my experience, joy does follow a tribulation. it can take time to appear. it definitely leads us down a path of pain and discomfort. but, if you look hard enough, joy is there. these hard experiences may bring new people into our lives during our trials and disappear shortly after. or they become our best friends during these difficult times. it may be growing and learning from the situation to be better than you were yesterday. or, it may even be as simple as waking up the next morning, swinging your legs out of bed to