What am I grateful for today?

 On this Yom Rishon I am grateful for many things, foremostly, that I woke up this morning and continued to breathe and that my body parts still work and move. It would be a lot less pleasant if I were a corpse lying in bed!

    Secondly, I'm grateful for the beauty of this day. The sunshine, blue sky with fluffy white clouds, the green trees and plants moving gently in the cooling breeze.

    Here, I'll stop the numbering, because I am equally grateful for everything that I name:

    My 84-year-old beloved mother is still with us, and I will be visiting her this week. My sister and her husband have a beautiful new home. My grandson is flourishing in the hands of his loving parents. My children, although I don't see them often, are living their lives near enough to me that I can invite them over sometimes.

    For the first time since my fall on the 11th February, I feel able to go downstairs and pay my plants a little attention - unfortunately, quite a few of them died of dehydration during the time I couldn't attend to them, but I will start some replanting this week. This past Erev Shabbat, I asked the gardener (who works at the main house and is kindly allowed to help me here and there, and he doesn't mind at all) to plant the last of my Cancer Bush seeds in a small bed in the garden, where I had previously tried to grow carrots, but the soil was too rocky further down. Since the Cancer Bush is more hardy, I'm hoping it will thrive there.

    The beautiful, large Etrog on my tree is now starting to go a little yellow. I'll have to eat it and trust HaShem to let another one grow in time for Sukkot! My banana tree has still not borne fruit, but I have been feeding it, so hopefully it will soon. My resurrected Yakon has beautiful leaves which I hope to harvest and freeze this week.

    I'm also so grateful for the birds that live around my abode. They sing so beautifully and lift my spirits. They always chirp in during prayers, and especially during the Shabbat Shacharit service. I noticed again yesterday (Shabbat) that they were mostly silent. I have heard it said that on Shabbat HaShem reveals Himself in His world more than during the week, thus nature is almost silent.

    I am grateful for the students the LORD has given me. For the perfect amount of income these classes generate for me. I'm grateful for the prayers of Israel that I'm privileged to pray with some of my lady friends, and I'm grateful that God has brought me into the House of Israel. It is such a beautiful and fulfilling way to live. Yeshua HaMashiach is at the centre of it all - for without Him none of this would even be remotely possible.

    Sometimes difficult situations arise in my relationships with people, especially those close to me, those I love.  When I am misunderstood or some such thing, I try to look inside myself to see if I perhaps treat others in that same hurtful way. Self-examination is difficult and painful, but, as a child of God, very necessary. The Ba'al Shem Tov said that if one notices behaviour in another person, it probably means that you are behaving in those same ways. I come before the LORD multiple times a day to repent of anything I may have done or said that did not glorify Him. It is, after all, on me to allow God to refine me so that I represent Him more properly.

    I'm grateful that I have a laptop, and am connected to the Internet, and am able to prepare and teach language lessons to various people across the globe. What a privilege the LORD has bestowed on me to be able to do this. And it's only by His grace and in His strength. I am but dust. Hallelujah!

    And the gift I have of being able to talk to my grandson every day is such a blessing to my life and to my heart.

Our blessings always outweigh our sorrows, in Yeshua!