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Gratefulness

piglet gratitude quote

As I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family this weekend, I thought about gratefulness. Is it the same as being thankful? Not exactly. At least not in my mind. Thankfulness is a good thing, it encourages us to appreciate not just material things, but family, friendship, beauty, and more.

For me, gratitude includes thankfulness but goes beyond it. When I googled the word, I really liked the 2nd part of definition that popped up: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. I can be thankful without extending kindness. And for me, kindness is at the heart of a life well lived.

It’s certainly true that I’m not always kind. I think some pretty awful thoughts, and all too often say things that aren’t helpful. But I try. I try to do better. I think about it often enough that I’m sure I do better than I did 20 years ago. I hope I can continue to say that as the years go by.

Spending time with my adult children, my son-in-law, and my grandson this weekend was a true joy. We cooked, we ate, we laughed, we sat around and simply enjoyed each other’s company. On Sunday we helped decorate the outside of my daughter & son-in-law’s house. We were all quite surprised when the inflatable polar bear she bought on deep discount at the end of the season last year turned out not to be 6.7 feet tall, as we each read on the box, but 14 feet tall! The 6.7 feet is his width, not his height! Holy smokes, that’s ONE BIG BEAR!

After I came home I finished assembling the green creature you’ve seen in bits and pieces. I’m really happy with him; he exceeded my expectations. Did you guess it’s a dragon? Here he is in all his glory, from the top and the front.

dragon from the top

dragon from the front

To give you some idea of his size, I’ve consistently photographed him on top of my Mac laptop.

Want to make one of your own? You can get the directions from Lucy Ravenscar – she’s graciously provided them for free!

2 comments to Gratefulness

  • Oh-KAY !~! The dragon strikes glee in the hearts of craftspeople everywhere. I’d like to construct Dragon’s Sibling in Crochet; wonder how hard it could be, she asks naively…

    A fourteen-foot AnyThing is a force to be reckoned with, isn’t it ?~! A snowman the size of an upturned camper would set off anyone’s fight or flight or melt syndrome, don’t’cha think ?~!

    • Peg Cherre

      Lynda – If you can crochet, the little dragon wasn’t hard. Mostly single crochet. The wings are a bit trickier, but so so worth it since they stand up like that on their own! And with a free pattern, it’s not like you’ll have a big investment if it doesn’t work out for you. 😉

      I struggled with that bear! The instructions were very unclear, and were clearly written for some other inflatable. I fussed for about 20 minutes and couldn’t get past step 1. Finally my daughter came over, looked at them, and said, skip step 1 and go on to step 2. That worked!

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