Thanksgivings

I’m about two months too early for Thanksgiving, but I am thankful for many things this week. This week has been a great week, and I realized today I have SO much to be thankful for. I feel like sharing these with all of you (and with myself).

• I am thankful for the sunshine we have had this week.
• I am thankful for laughter.
• I am thankful for encouragement.
• I am thankful for the cool mornings that remind me of fall in New England.
• I am thankful for music, in its many forms.
• I am thankful for smiling faces in the hallways.
• I am thankful for Wednesday- a very long day where when driving to school I saw the sun rising, and driving from school I saw it setting.
• I am thankful for Morning Prayer.
• I am thankful for my Hebrew professor, who seems to understand we will not master this difficult grammar right away.
• I am thankful for middler and senior students who have already started to become great role models and mentors.
• I am thankful for an eloquent, funny, and brilliant Church History professor.
• I am thankful for that same Church History professor who told all us single folk that there was nothing wrong with us. Somehow it’s more encouraging when grounded in theology than when my mom says it.
• I am thankful for my mom.
• I am thankful for my dad.
• I am thankful for my family’s upcoming visit next weekend!
• I am thankful for Jenna, who so kindly acknowledged sibling awesomeness day yesterday. Every day is sibling awesomeness day in my book, because she’s the best.
• I am thankful for Monday night phone conversations with said sibling.
• I am thankful for Grammy, who has been making random appearances in my dreams this week.
• I am thankful for my mindless job, and the wonderful women I work for.
• I am thankful for UNC Chapel Hill (and Vanderbilt) for making my mindless job a thousand times easier.
• I am thankful for Southern hospitality. And Southern accents.
• I am thankful for my roommates for keeping me sane by making me play Dutch Blitz or watch New Girl.
• I am thankful for my friends who come to sit with me when they see me in the library, refectory, or outside.
• I am thankful for friends who let me sit with them.
• I am thankful for reading, chatting, and laughing with a friend outside on a beautiful day.
• I am thankful for tough conversations that make me think more deeply.
• I am thankful for my subconscious, which through the good dreams and bad dreams this week is making me think more about my worries and fears.
• I am thankful for the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies (AEHS), and the supportive people who make up the House.
• I am thankful for cheese-less pizza being ordered for me at an event. (It was so yummy- tomato sauce and veggies!)
• I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and food in the cabinets.
• I am thankful for Anne, Joe, and Kaye for being so welcoming.
• I am thankful for Joan, June, Eileen and Peach (and the many other people) who have already made me feel at home in the St. Luke’s choir, even after only one rehearsal.
• I am thankful for random conversations with little old ladies.
• I am thankful for chance meetings with celebrity-esque professors.
• I am thankful for the Divinity School Choir.
• I am thankful for Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.
• I am thankful for Wendy, whose voice lessons I try and remember every time I sing.
• I am thankful for Bryan, Nicholas, and Clara- my Anglican Spiritual Formation group.
• I am thankful for Randy, Rachel, Joe, Wayne, Derrick, Ryan, Natasha and Matthew- my first year spiritual formation group.
• I am thankful for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was stuck in my head all through my Old Testament study group on Tuesday.
• I am thankful for polity. Both the class and the actual thing.
• I am thankful for letters received from friends.
• I am thankful for discernment.
• I am thankful for beginning to figure out who Christa is in this new place.
• I am thankful for the bus driver who greets me every morning at 7:33.
• I am thankful for Chapel.
• I am thankful for the fifteen minutes where the bells of Duke Chapel serenade the campus.
• I am thankful for having a very supportive preceptor.
• I am thankful for the York Reading Room, and the person who pointed it out to me.
• I am thankful for Athanasius.
• I am thankful my Athanasius paper is DONE.
• I am thankful for Barber’s Agnus Dei that got me through the end of my Athanasius paper this morning.
• I am thankful for new parents who bring their babies to school.
• I am thankful for people in my classes who I don’t agree with. We are meant to learn something from each other.
• I am thankful for cute skirts that I can still wear because it’s warm here.
• I am thankful that I will get to see Michelle this weekend!
• I am thankful that I have not gotten sick yet.
• I am thankful tomorrow is Friday.
• I am thankful for patience and continue to pray for more of it.
• I am thankful for the influence of the my inner-5-year-old who is screaming with excitement at the fact that today I turn 23 ¾ !! :-)
• I am thankful for yarn and needles.  
• I am thankful for the opportunity to be here.
• I am thankful for my Geneva family and my Framingham family who have formed me into who I am today.
• I am thankful for my plans for fall break. (Surprise! I’m going to Geneva October 16-20!)
• I am thankful for Lesley and her hospitality.
• I am thankful for prayer.
• I am thankful for love.
• I am thankful for the love of God.
• I am thankful for endless possibilities.
• I am thankful for all of you who read this blog and want to keep in touch with me.
• I am thankful that there is so much to be thankful for.

Peace, Love, and Smiles, y’all

Christa