giving thanks #2

Story #1--I am one of the young women leaders in my ward. Tonight we had Young Women in Excellence. In case you don't know, it's a time for the young women to show off some of the talents they've gained while working on their goals in Personal Progress. (check out LDS.org if you're still lost) Anyway, I was listening to all the talents the girls decided to share: singing, playing guitar, playing piano, writing songs, writing poems, baking cookies, painting, photography, public speaking--it was pretty impressive. Some were just starting out, and had simplistic and basic displays for their talents. Others had been working for years on their talents, and they were pretty advanced.

Story #2--Bogey is learning to do a hand stand. He came up to me today and shouted, "mom! Watch this!" then he ran over to the wall and started trying to flip onto his head and lean against the wall. The only problem was, he couldn't get his feet up. They kept falling back down to the ground. Every time he fell, he said, "Oh, wait, that's not it." Finally, when he kicked his feet up into the air, I caught them and put them up against the wall. "Like this?" I asked. "yeah!" he shouted triumphantly from the floor, "I told you I could do it!"

Story #3--my mom came to visit last week. She is an amazing person. My mom had cancer last year and had a surgery to remove the tumor, half her sinus cavity, and her eye. Her face is deformed now, but when I see her, I don't see that. I see an amazing person. (if you want to catch a glimpse of the amazing person she is, read the quote at the top of this page: she's the one that wrote it.) While she was here, we were visiting in the bathroom while I trimmed her hair. One of the hairs fell on the counter, and when mom went to pick it up, her depth perception went askew and she missed it with her finger. We laughed about it, as I helped her put her finger on the hair and guide it to the garbage. For a few minutes after that, we stood in silence while I finished trimming. "Mom," I asked her, "how do you not feel sorry for yourself all the time? After what you've been through no one would blame you for it." She shrugged. I said, "I would be throwing a pity party for myself all the time." She shrugged again and said, "It gets old. No one comes to those parties. I'd rather be where the fun is."

These three stories have combined in my mind today. I am grateful for my body. I'm grateful for my mind, for all the things I'm capable of doing. I'm grateful that I can think and develop talents and try new things. I'm grateful that I can figure out problems. I'm grateful that I can exercise and laugh and cry and feel a million other things. Of course there are times that I look at myself with disgust. My belly is flabby, my nose is too big, I'm too short, blah, blah, blah--it's so easy to fall into that trap of "never good enough." I know because I fall into it A LOT.

But today I'm grateful to have a body that allows me to be and do and experience life is so many ways.