32

Today I am 32...and I wanted to share 32 things for which I am grateful

1. Our little boy
2. My wife
3. A loving community
4. Colleagues who understand when I need pastoral care and have the ability to listen to "what I'm not saying" (thanks Happeners!)
   
5. Friends who share their love with our boy
6. The progress our dog has made
7. Financial stability (for which I am grateful but feel oddly guilty about)
8. A positive birthing/mothering experience
9. Health care
10. baby grins and giggles
11. Our house and the home it has become
12. Good naps
13. COFFEE
    
14. A sense of humor
15. Cloth diapering (see #14)
16. Baby wearing (Mei Tai; ring sling; Ergo; storch; moby...)
17. breast feeding (see #14)
18. The older parishioner who made it clear that she missed me when I was away at a wedding
19. Volunteers!
20. Good books (most recently "The Coroner's Lunch")
21. People who "welcome the stranger", M in Minneapolis who took us to church and the airport.
22. The smiles H elicits in complete strangers
23. The big tree in our front yard
24. Picking (and eating!) fruit
25. Our baby's godparents
26. The ability to connect via the internet with long lost friends and relatives
27. reading to the baby (I can always get him to laugh by reading "We're Going on a Bear Hunt")
28. Coffee...oh, that's a repeat. Hmmm, vacations!!!
29. Good massages
30. Hugs from kids and the trust of parents
31. Discernment (even tho' figuring out the direction to which one is called can be VERY hard)
32. Today