eucharisteo: yoo-khar-is-teh'-o               to be grateful, feel thankful, give thanks. 

"The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as graceand gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy." -Ann Voskamp

Being thankful for the little gifts that He gives us in every day life. These posts of "things to be happy about"  will be sporadic until i've reached 1,000. Some will be beautifully worded. Some will be broken. Some will be a short sentence. All will be gifts.

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number twenty-one:  Words. I haven't ever truly wanted to "be" anything.. yet far am I from drifting in the breeze. But I've always, always embraced words... from the moment  I could write. Family stories. Fairy stories involving my puppets as the characters. Journals opened and closed within the space of a few months. However, I haven't "storied" in the past couple of months, because I'm looking at my moments right now (those I have journaled).. I'm  returning  to those moments. Ah... these moments... are  gifts . April, 2009: "I caught the first butterfly cocoon open today, it's wings  just  unfolding. I am reminded of the beauty of spring,  the joy of the L-rd is my strength . The butterfly opening its wings may be symbols of G-d making us new through the refinement process... but I feel that it is also a representation of Him giving me strength to face the day." August 2008: "Swam and splashed in the ocean today for hours without fear of a shark...for which I'm actually thankful for to a degree you'll never imagine. I pray every time that G-d will give me oceans to walk on... and then I worry that He might choose to send me a "shark" in the ocean of life every time, too. So I suppose I just have to thank Him for the perfect day and just pray that He'll guard me from the would-be shark tomorrow."   January, 2011: "My prayer...is to  always  feel this way...this fully surrendered.  thank You. " S eptember 2013: "The  moment  my toes touched the sand I remembered last summer... and all the summers before this. The sky and the sea beckoned to me, the clouds called my name, and I wanted to breathe it all in and just hold my breath for the next hundred years... if only it could be so simple. I don't even know how to explain it. In fact, this was one moment where I didn't want  to reach for my camera to spoil the moment. I was caught in a moment of His beauty, and I didn't want to leave.."  These are what I will return to on winter days. I praised Him in those moments that I recorded; I want to return to them and give Him praise for them again and  again . 

number twenty-two:  D eep and uplifting conversations with a friend who  always  pulls me toward Christ. Laughter, and just a little sorrow (not regret) over days past, too. Thoroughly enjoyable card games filled with the usual amount of competition..  "if Your love is an ocean, we're all sinking." 

number twenty-three: Warm woolen shawls and baskets in replace of coats and purses.

"is this acceptable?" "when were you ever socially 'acceptable?'" *laughter*  

Is this a good thing? :) Call me old-fashioned... but I rather like feeling like a "little maiden" (Mama's words, not mine) with my basket over my arm (with my purse inside, because that's the thing to do..?), and shawl draped over my shoulders. 

number twenty-four: Thanksgiving. Family time and games of Apples-to-Apples, punctuated by dessert, and then the pulling out of old-photo albums. Having not been here for Thanksgiving last year... I remembered how much i adore this season again and again. 

number twenty-five: Becoming Broadway-bound singers with my sisters in the kitchen as our traditional movie plays. "my heart will be blessed with the sound of music..." "i am sixteen going on seventeen, innocent as a rose..." "when you wake up, wake up; it's healthy!" "how do you solve a problem like Maria?" "that will bring us back to Do-oh-oh-oh..." and the ever-present, "what a duet for a girl and goatherd, *yodel and etcetera*" 

We've been watching The Sound of Music every Thanksgiving since I was a baby (or within that general week), and about three weeks ahead of time, the songs become so stuck in your head that you have to sing them loudly and proudly for all to hear (getting them stuck in everyone else's head), that it could almost be called a relief to get them out by watching them. Such fun... such joy. 

" Every time  I watch this movie I feel like I've learned how to sing all over again." 

number twenty-six: this book. I've read it once before; I'm reading it again..because honestly, it is just one of the most clear books on relationships that I have ever read. I want to start a book discussion/study on it for some of the young ladies in our area one of these days... goodness. I have learned so much, and there is still so much more to internalize the second time through. It's such  a blessing. 

I  had the privilege of being able to meet the authors/sisters a few years ago, and I was in awe of them and their hearts; recently, a friend came to me with a situation and I found myself using what I've learned here as a base. When I went through the Life Purpose Planning book for CollegePlus, I discovered just how passionate I was about mentoring younger teen women in their value and worth in G-d's eyes ...

I can't wait to see what the next few years will bring. 

number twenty-seven: Christmas-time... is it actually December 2nd? Could someone pinch me, please? We've officially pulled down the autumn leaves, *sniff* and bedecked the fireplace mantel with something just a little more suitable for the season. Fires burn in the grate, beckoning for me to leave my school and join them with my Bible or a good book. There's a different stillness in the air, which yet combats a bustle.. creating a happy and contented mixture.  Coffee and tea became more of a happy place. 

number twenty-eight: Light. My heart swells every time I hear Grace-Hope practice for her upcoming "recital" with the co-op group... "the Light has come."  .. I sit and ponder those words. Is that why I feel such joy when there is darkness, and yet a twinkling of light shows..? Jesus is here. Jesus has always been here; but I am in awe of how I feel His presence all about me. I pass by houses bedecked with a dazzle of lights, and see more than the strung sparkles swaying in the chilling breeze... and I wonder if that family has let the true Light in..? All I can do at this moment is pray... 

number twenty-nine :  Alexandrea. <----- Words cannot express how thankful and blessed I am by this sister of mine. We've had our ups and downs (and we're more than likely going to have more), but I've realized more and more recently how much of a confidant I  do  have in her rather than not. 

number thirty: I have a Guide, even on the darkest of nights. What more can be said? I'm thankful that He has a plan for me... and I am living it. ... I am living it. If He chooses to move me... so be it. So be it. I'm at that place right now... where I do have hopes, I do have dreams, and I do have loves that I wish to pursue... but I don't have plans. I wrote a little song in the quiet the other day, which has a line in it saying:  "You won't tie my soul to a dead-end dream...help me see what You see."  He has a greater plan- one I could never fathom. And so, I rest.