Thankful

Last year on Facebook, I made an attempt to post something for which I was thankful each day in November leading up to Thanksgiving.  I started out with gusto.  
By the time Thanksgiving Day arrived, I was boring myself.  Not for lack of reasons to be thankful; it's just that posting some different thing day after day, as though it were a job, just gets to be mundane.  
This year I saved my thankfulness for this one day, and I won't need to list that many items.  
I am thankful that in a huge world, this solitary and peculiar person found someone to love her.  
I am SO very thankful for my upbringing and my past:  for the parents and uncles and aunts and cousins and children and grandchildren God blessed me with.  They made me who I am, for better or worse.  They are with me, in me, in every breath I take.  
I am thankful that I am able to see and hear.  The older I get, the more I appreciate those gifts, because I've seen relatives lose them.  What a dreary world it must be to one who can't see or hear.  
I am thankful for the Internet, my window on the world.  I am thankful for all the friends I have made on this information highway, because honestly, with the exception of my husband, they are my only friends.  I have always a hermit and a loner, but somehow it's been easier to share my world with my Internet friends; we got to know one another without judging by appearances.    
One of my dearest Internet friends recently sent me an email that expresses how I feel at this stage of my life, and I'd like to share it here.  I wish I could give credit to the author, but I haven't found who that is.  

You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.

I know that I lived them all…

And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams… But, here it is.. the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise… How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my youth go?

I remember well… seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like…  But, here it is…my friends are retired and getting gray…they move slower and I see an older person now. Lots are in better shape than me… but, I see the great change…  Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant… but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d be.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day!  And taking a nap is not a treat anymore…it’s mandatory!  Cause if I don’t on my own free will..I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!!

But, at least I know, that though the winter has come, and I’m not sure how long it will last…this I know, that when it’s over…its over….Yes , I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done ,,,,,things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I’m happy to have done.  It’s all in a lifetime….

So, if you’re not in your winter yet…let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly!  Don’t put things off too long!!

Life goes by quickly.  So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life.. so, live for good today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember… and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!!

‘Life is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after.

Make it a fantastic one.’