Thankful Thursday - guest post by Jess!

Hey all you Crafty Girl Squared readers! Today for our Thankful Thursday post, Brandi and Meig are happy to welcome a dear friend of Meig's who is going to share some things she is thankful for. You can find Jess on her blogs here (food!) and here (social awareness!). 

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Gratitude is an important word to me. My life has been a gamble since I was born, so I do my best to find the wonder in every day. Meig, one of the best sisters a girl could find, asked me to share with you some of the things for which I am grateful. I’m excited to share my somewhat unconventional list because I know, somewhere out there, someone is struggling to find the right words of pure thanks. If I can’t inspire a heartfelt note or a moment of expression, I can at least take such a wonderful chance to shout my gratitude to the rafters, right?

I am thankful for my family. The women who let me into their world of friendship (Cari and Meig,
Melissa, Liz, Nikki, Karissa, Lindsey), the men who adopted me even though they didn’t have to (Zach and Ken, Joe, Fluffy, Eric, Ryan); I am grateful for the family I found without having to be born into them. My brothers and sisters –each of whom share lives full of compassion, trials and triumphs – are a source of constant inspiration and hope for me. I’m grateful for the incredibly creative women who share this blog, and seek to inspire others with the gifts they possess. Such intellect and compassion!

There aren’t enough words to express how thankful I am for the opportunities my life has afforded me. Mine is a world where I have the chance to express myself on the internet, to write about my passions and loves. Without writing a letter in long-hand copperplate, I can address my concerns through an open medium. I am deeply grateful for the chance to express myself, knowing across the world that there are men and women with far more to say than I who have no chance achieve the same. I have been given a chance today to reach out to people I may never otherwise get to reach, because some impressively gifted women wanted to share their space. Something to be thankful for, isn’t it?

I don’t want to sound sappy, but I am also grateful for love. I don’t mean any specific type, be it the familial love I have for the sister who asked me to guest write this entry today (Thanks again, Meig!), or the romantic love I feel for my husband. I am thankful for the opportunity to simply love. I have been given a chance to feel kindness, compassion, attentiveness and appreciation of beauty when presented with another human being. I know, from personal experience, that there are people in this world literally incapable of love. Because I know how close I was to being one of those people, I find a moment every day to be humbled by the fact that I still find things to like about people with whom I do not get along. I try to take every chance I am offered to love people. Not because they can do something for me, or enhance some imagined status; I love people because they exist. In all forms, in ranges of delicate beauty and hardened pain, with scars so plentiful I cannot begin to guess the origin of each, I find patterns of exquisite tenderness that take away my breath.

So today, I’m grateful to reach out to you. This was a favor for my Meig, for whom I would
unquestioningly do much, but somehow it feels like another opportunity. I’m grateful that I had the chance to say hello, to share some of my loves and experiences. One of the greatest parts of gratitude is hope. Hope that our thanks mean something, hope that the good we acknowledge goes on. I am indeed grateful for all the good in my life, and hope my words remind you of those special relationships and moments for which you are grateful as well.

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Thanks Jess!! Brandi and I are so glad to have you here today. :)


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