there is hope smiling brightly before us

I was sitting in my office on this perfectly ordinary Monday when I started smelling a very familiar smell. Oranges. Someone around me was eating an orange and I suddenly wanted one. Christmas season* means orange season. Means an orange in the toe of my stocking. Means oranges and nuts (in shell, with nutcracker) in a bowl on the kitchen counter. Means me sitting forlornly at the counter hoping someone will peel an orange for me. Because oranges, like bananas, are yummy fruit encased in peels that I hate touching. Luckily, in this little mental trip I took from the orange smell to wanting to eat an orange, I very quickly remembered that in all the time I have known him, Somebody has never refused to peel an orange for me if he knew I wanted one.

1. And so today I am grateful that something so ordinary—the smell of an orange—immediately reminded me of something so extraordinary—the love and service I receive every day, in very ordinary ways, from Somebody

2. I am grateful for an iPod to drown out the "office" noises around me.

3. I am grateful that this Thanksgiving week will bring my brother (tomorrow!) and my sister (Wednesday!) and my other brother (Thursday!) to my house to celebrate. The only way this party could get better was if my other sister was coming, too. I am grateful that, at least, I get to spend Christmas with her.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote, "The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life" (Quotationary, electronic quotation dictionary).


*And I know (I KNOW) it is not even Thanksgiving yet, so I'm kind of jumping the gun here calling it Christmas season. But there were oranges, people! Oranges!