Counting My Blessings

I haven't felt like blogging much lately. The recent earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan has been weighing heavily on my mind. . . It is the country of my birth and where I grew up.  I still have family ties there and many friends I grew up with are still living there.  My mother has been visiting the country, and I spent a nervous few days wondering if she was OK. She was, and no one I know has been injured, but I learned that a  few of my friend's extended family members are missing, and one of the "Fukushima 40" workers who had been trying to get the nuclear reactors under control is a cousin of one of my friends. . . This disaster has hit too close to home for comfort.

It is times like these that we count our blessings. We take life for granted, and fail too often to stop and think about all we have, and what we could be without.  I am blessed that I have a wonderful husband and two wonderful sons who are almost grown men.  While I sometimes  miss the days when they were much younger, I am happy to see that we managed to raise our sons to know right from wrong and adverse to using harmful substances.  While I often wish they would apply themselves to their studies more, I know they are not stupid or ignorant and they will be OK after my husband and I are gone.

My husband. . . I don't thank him often enough how I appreciate him.  He is my best friend. He is the rock that keeps our family together.  He is the one who is always  thinking about "the big picture" as I often run around trying to get things done. We are complete opposites in personality, and I believe that is why we have managed to stay together for 20 years since we met. He has a strong personality and shyness is not in his vocabulary.  He can sometimes come across as abrasive to some strangers, and more than one person has made the comment to us over the years how they did not like him initially and wondered how we stayed married or how I could stand to live with him.  Too often, people judge the strongness in one's character and mistake that with abuse which is not even there.  Those same people realize over time that he is really a teddy bear, though a bear nevertheless when the situation warrants it.  He is my yin as I am his yang; two inseperable parts of a whole.  I cannot imagine life without him. . .

I am blessed to have a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in at night and food on my table that I can share with my family and friends.  Everything else is gravy. 

I pray that those who lost their homes, family and friends in Japan can find comfort soon.  And I pray that the thousands who lost their lives did not suffer long and that God was merciful.