I'm thankful for...

DAY 1: I am thankful for my wonderful husband, Matt.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! Tomorrow is the day when all across the country, people are focusing on and giving thanks for what they have. I've been thinking about what I have to be thankful for a lot in the past few months because I know I don't focus on those things enough and I have so very much to be thankful for. So, one of my goals for the next year is to identify and focus on one thing I'm thankful for every day, for 365 days.

I'm certain I have at the very least 365 things in my life that I'm thankful for. Rather than try to think of all of them, diluting the huge significance or any one in my life, I'll just look at one per day.

Today, my first day, I will focus on the thing I am most thankful for out of the many things in my life that I appreciate: my husband. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I found the one person who can tolerate me and I can tolerate, not just for a few years, but for a lifetime. He makes me laugh, he frustrates me, he supports me, and (for better and worse) he gets me.

If I could bottle and sell my husband, I'd be rich. He cooks, he grocery shops, he irons, he loves to putter around the house and yard and fix things, he's neat and organized--essentially, he's the anti-Lynne. But, our personalities mesh--we're both sarcastic smart-alecs, we both love to brabble, we can both get irritated with the other one minute and find the humor in it the next. And, best of all, our love continues to grow, slow and steady, every day.

When I was young, I couldn't appreciate that slow, gradual burn. I mistook fireworks and intensity for love. That's probably why all my past relationships crashed and burned. With Matt, each day I'm surprised and excited about something new. Small things. That he sets my vitamins out so I don't forget to take them. That he--not a coffee drinker--notices when the creamer is low and puts a new one in the fridge for me. That he is confident enough in himself and in us to not try to change for me or to change me, but instead, we understand and accomodate our differences. We don't need each other to be whole, but together we're a bigger and better whole.

For Matt alone, I have a lifetime full of reasons to be thankful. And I am.