Gratitude

I came across an old journal this weekend. It's a gratitude journal my husband and I kept back when we were poor, overworked students (which is completely different from the slightly less poor, overworked parents we are today).

We both had minimum wage retail jobs (and bus rides) that I hated so much I had to hide my head under the covers at the end of every day to distance myself from the ladies who called me dear and touched my arms and asked for that green book about Jesus, and the wackos who cried "bar codes are the mark of the beast!" I was writing a thesis and T was training for a job in computer technology. Both of us had a lot of stress and health issues and hand-me-down furniture. I'm sure people looking from the outside would have said not a lot to be thankful for.

The reason I hadn't read the journal in so long was because I we'd abandoned it after a couple weeks. Actually, the journal covers almost every day from June 11 to October 4, 1998, with a few more days later that winter and the next. Every night, five entries. Five reasons to be thankful. Written as a couple.

Here are a few of my favourites:

• T made casserole

• this camp has flush toilets!

• God keeps seeking us out

• we have all our limbs

• new underwear for $1.99

• frogs aren't extinct yet

• not all work days are like today

• a customer made Ange laugh by asking "What do Jewish people wear...you know, the cap with the feather?"

• new church blessed and welcomed us with hugs, handshakes, words

• little AR at church said Ange looked like a princess

• someone saved a woman in trouble, but got stabbed for his efforts. It missed his heart so he'll live

• mocha (our bunny) lay on Ange's lap while she studied

• a couple on the news were unable to afford to go to China to adopt a little girl but then they won plane tickets to China at a sporting event

• we sometimes are grouchy, but we can still love each other

• we are not allergic to chocolate