Marker #76

Out on the expressways there are those mile markers telling us how far we have come, or depending on your perspective, how far we have to go.  Today a new mile marker showed up for me on the journey.  I reached my 76th birthday.  Never been at that point between here and there before.  While some might say it is time to start folding the tent, it feels more like a time when new things are unfolding before me.  I find myself living with a heightened sense of gratitude for each day and the blessings which come with each day.    

Like everyone who reads this, the journey from there to here has had some rough, dark, and hard places.  But, it has also had moments which could only be described as better than I could have ever deserved.  As I go forward with the journey from here to there, I am sure that this part of it will not change.  The storms and sunshine have come to us all and they are still going to come.   The good news is that the Holy One who has walked with me as I traveled from there to here is going to travel each step of the way from here to there.    

As I have walked into this day which marks year number 76, I do so with two words to guide me.  One is gratitude; the other is generosity.  I know that I have never been so conscious of the spirit of gratitude in my life.  It came like a powerful wind as I entered into a season of noting the small blessings which were coming into my life on the stormy days as well as those filled with blue skies and sunshine.  One of the byproducts of a growing sense of gratitude is a growing desire to be more generous with the things which I have mistakenly thought of as mine.  To live a few extra years is to realize that nothing is mine, it is all His.  I am grateful for all He has shared with me and grateful, too, that He is giving me more opportunities to share what is His with others.