In honor of the Viking's game today, I'm going to do this post in yellow lettering. Purple is officially cooler, but it wouldn't really show up against my background, so yellow it is! GO VIKES!

Having said that, I will now move on to the actual subject of this post.

Has it ever just struck you how much you truly have and the stark contrast between the living conditions of the western world and the rest of the world? It happens to me all the time. Take today, for instance. I went to Perkins with Italian Roomy. We both got big ol' sandwiches with a heaping side of fries. I finished my sandwich, but I was too full to eat all of the fries. There's no reason to force feed myself, so I just threw the rest away. And that's when it hit me. I have so much that I throw perfectly good things away.

Anyway, it's something that comes to my mind a lot. I have experienced American "poverty." But in comparison with the rest of the world, our poverty is so rich. Don't get me wrong, I'm not belittling people's situations. There are a lot of Americans who are genuinely struggling. But our struggles rarely include painful hunger or lack of basic necessities. I guess it's this whole disaster that's happening in Haiti that's bringing it back into my mind. There are two million people who have lost everything. It's hard to imagine.

What do you love about your life? What is your biggest material blessing? What is your smallest?

my thankful-for's

Painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner - Thankful Poor

I woke up this morning and I was so comfortable in my nice warm bed, wrapped up in my many blankets and coddled by my fluffy pillow. I jumped out of bed and wrapped up in my fuzzy bathroom. I made my way toward the bathroom and jumped into the shower, where I had hot water to last for an hour. I lathered up in my vanilla scented Olay ultra moisturizing body wash and washed and conditioned my hair. Even though it was cold outside, my house was warm. I returned to my room and dried my hair with a blow dryer. It took me a long time to decide what to wear because I couldn't choose which of my many clothes I wanted to wear. And guess what? I have always been this blessed. You know, we struggled a lot when I was a kid, but we never went hungry. We were never without heat. Our cars broke down, we went without, we sacrificed for the things that were really important, but we never lacked anything that we really needed.

I say all of this to say how thankful I am for my life. Every moment this morning I was realizing just how much I do have and how many people don't have the same. Every year as the temperature drops and Thanksgiving rolls around I realize just a little sliver of how blessed I truly am.

What are you thankful for?