These Blessings

I have a floor to sit on with a floor heater turned on (even though it's 75 degrees in my house). I have a bookshelf full of books (some tipped to the left because I pulled out their neighbors and neglected to replace them), I have a messy room because my ritual Friday-before-Sabbath-starts cleaning was scuttled for a long drive to I-Drive to pick up a visitor I met at church who got stranded at a store because she was too far from her motel room to walk back and did not enough cash to pay a taxi to get back.

I have cicadas outside humming their long notes. I have a chance to choose to be here, present in Orlando, in my life right now (I never left, but I needed to choose to stay). I have ideas to explore; I have friendships to nurture and grow. I have people to connect and potlucks to attend. And books to read, did I say that already? It's worth saying again--BOOKS to read.

I have God's forgiveness that is far as the east is from the west. I have a God who names me what I will be and not what I am (see John 1:42), who loves to love me, who is teaching me and knows what is best "whether hunger or bread" for my life.

These are my blessings.