An Update [and The End]

My niece Rachel had a birthday in September this year.  Since she's in dance classes, I made her some legwarmers (and a hat to match).  Apparently Bethany has been trying to get a picture of her in them but she's been sassy about it and doesn't really want to wear them.

If this is her sassy face, it's also pretty cute, huh?

Maybe she'll start to wear them more when it gets colder and colder in the dance studio?

And so, this is the end of my blogging-every-day.  It's been a fun month, but I don't mind admitting I'm happy to go back to a more relaxed schedule :)

Looking back over my posts for this month, I am (oddly enough) struck by the many blessings I have.  Some people call it "human nature" to be always longing for something more, something else than what we have in front of us.  Some people think that it's all fine and dandy to lose sight of the present moment in all its moment-ous richness. I often find myself falling into those camps, forgetting that right now is what's most important. [I don't mean to say we shouldn't, for instance, keep our "sights" on Heaven and know that we are longing for God, etc, but as for living our lives, the present moment is all we have "control" over, if that makes any sense.]

I'd like to think that, most of the time, I'm "in the moment."  I'd like to think that I appreciate things as they come, and don't spend too much time looking wistfully into the future, or longingly back to the past.

So, at the close of this month of Thanks-giving, I give thanks for all the many blessings I have been given. A wise confessor (at World Youth Day in Toronto) once asked me: "What do you have that you have not received?"  The only answer is "nothing."  All is gift.  Therefore, all our breaths should be exhalations of thanks.

Grant it, O Lord.