Grateful

As I listened to NPR on the way home this evening, I was acutely aware of the madness unfolding around the world. Riots in the Middle East. State Senators fleeing their responsibilities. Exponentially rising gas prices. The threat of a federal government shut down.

Madness and mayhem seem to be the adjectives of current events right now.

But in the midst of world crises, I am strangely at peace. Don't get me wrong - I care deeply about what is happening around me, and constantly have my finger on the global pulse. But, I now think back to my late teens and early twenties when, at times I lived and breathed the temperature of the global political climate so intensely that I forgot...to be grateful. I forgot about the beauty of mayhem. I forgot to drink in the sweet intensity of the happiness in my own life.

Amid chaos lives peace. The absolute truth of this strange dichotomy strikes me dumb at times.

So tonight, instead of being angstful, I am grateful.

I am grateful for a husband who truly is my best friend. Who challenges me, inspires me, and gives me confidence.
I am grateful for a son, who is the love of both of our lives. A boy who is smart, funny, curious and so full of joy that it sometimes takes my breath away.
I am grateful for creativity, and the lustful adventure of being wrapped up in its grasp.
I am grateful for parents who have let me test the boundaries of their love and patience in unusual ways, but who have always (eventually) embraced my non-conventional rebellions.
I am grateful for brothers who always, always, always make me shake my head and wonder - but who also never fail in their devotion to family and friendship.
I am grateful for my core group of friends who, even when separated from me by miles or life's milestones, will always be family, and only a phone call away.
And I am grateful for freedom, and knowing that I have the right to be a mother, a wife, a professional or all three, and knowing that only my own insecurities can prevent me from soaring in all three.

I am grateful. Always, I am grateful. Many moments and hours and days, I forget that I am - but tonight, I choose to remember.

World, what and who are you grateful for? Who and what do you choose to celebrate tonight?