Stop what you’re doing and clear your mind for just a moment. I want you to think about the most important people, places, things, events or memories in your life. Choose 3 that are most important or that you couldn’t imagine living without and write them down (or just keep them in mind for a moment). Look at your list. Let your mind explore why those things are so important in your life. If you have the time, write a few sentences about what they mean to you, why you couldn’t live without them or why they the most important to you. Take a few minutes to reflect or write about it. Most importantly, if you tend to be an emotional person or emotional due to being pregnant (like me), I would grab a few tissues…

Okay, are we done with our lists and our thoughts? Have we prepared for a few tears, if needed? Because, I’m about to have you imagine something that we don’t often let ourselves think about and if we do, we don’t think about it for very long. Look at that list again and imagine that you woke up one morning and #1 on your list was gone… It was no longer part of your life, for one reason or another. What about #2, #3, or what if they all disappeared from your life, right now. Can you imagine life without them? How would you deal with that loss? Or, could you deal with that loss? Some of us have already experienced a loss, in one way or another, of someone or something that was on our “list” in the past, or maybe still is on that list but only as a memory…

Every year as Thanksgiving approaches we are reminded to “give thanks”, or maybe even asked to tell what we are grateful for and why. We give our thanks and we share things we are thankful for with the people around us, then we stuff our faces with ungodly amounts of food, laugh and visit with family and friends, create new memories, take a nap, watch football, etc. Some of us (yes… us. I’m a member of this club lol) have a plan of attack for Thanksgiving. It’s genius but simple! Visit and laugh while food is prepared, eat until we can’t eat anymore, claim our favorite comfy spot, take a nap, eat more, then repeat the last 2 steps until Thanksgiving is over. Okay, maybe for a few days afterward… or until all the food is gone… Don’t judge me! I know what I like and what I like is food! Especially creamy yet lumpy, homemade, sinfully buttered mashed taters… Mmmm… Sorry! I got a little side tracked there, but my point is that we touch briefly on giving thanks at certain times during the year, especially at Thanksgiving, then we get busy with our lives again and we take those things for granted. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s human nature and we are all guilty of it.

I’m writing this because #1 on my list was taken from me recently, and I wish now that I had treated every day as though it were the last day with my #1. I wish that I had given my #1 more time and attention instead of playing games on my phone, trolling Facebook, texting friends, stressing about work, and even feeling sorry for myself. I always knew it was the most important thing to me, but I took my #1 for granted and I never thought it would be gone. I never thought it would be taken from me. I never thought that I would have to wake up every day and push myself to just do the bare minimum to survive because without my #1, what’s the point? I have never felt physically pained from a loss in my life until my #1 was gone. There are moments that I literally can’t handle the emotional or physical pain of its absence. There are even times when I,  possibly being someone else’s #1, feel like giving up and ending the pain. It’s an unexplainable feeling to reach that point. The only way to explain it is feeling a mixture of “desperation” and “weakness”. Neither of which is a settling feeling.

On the bright side of things, my #1 isn’t gone forever. It’s not always like that for other people that lose something from their “list” so, I’m blessed on that one part of my loss. The person that is truly blessed right now, is you! Your list is still intact. You have the ability to embrace every moment with the things on your list. You have the ability to enjoy them. Never take those things for granted and don’t assume that they will always be there. GIVE THANKS! And giving thanks doesn’t necessarily mean thanking God, either. I know that not everyone reading this has the same religious beliefs as me, so this isn’t a God thing. Going back to what we learned in school, “Give” is a verb, an ACTION word, that means “to show” or “to display”. So, when we “Give Thanks” we should be expressing our appreciation by our actions, not our words. I can tell you all day long that I appreciate you. It doesn’t mean anything to you until I use actions to show you my appreciation. Long story short, don’t just speak about being grateful and giving thanks once a year. Show it every single day by your actions. You never know when those things you’re thankful for will be taken from you.

Thanks for reading!

F.Y.I. – For future reference, I may be opinionated but I’m the most accepting and tolerant person you will ever know, and you will never hear me “preach” religion in this blog. I may quote the Bible or thank God from time to time, but I respect religious freedom, I respect you and I don’t press my beliefs on anyone.

-AND-

All I can think about are those freakin’ lumpy mashed potatoes now! Looks like that’s what’s for dinner at my house tonight. I hope Shawn likes his mashed potatoes lumpy. Sorry, honey!