Thankful

A friend's status on Facebook today was something along the lines of "what if you woke up this morning with only the things you were thankful for yesterday." Got me to thinking. I don't have answerrs to many of the questions swirling in my head but still I can't help but ask them.

For being thankful for something do you have to consciously say, "I am thankful for _____ (fill in the blank)?" Or is being thankful a state of being? Where you are ever looking at life around you and knowing this is good, this is best? Or does the state of thankfulness coincide with the state of contentment?

For example...I don't consciously on a daily basis say to myself or anyone else that I am thankful for Elliott but there is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful for him. He makes me smile on a daily basis. I often wonder how come my heart doesn't simply explode when he says, "I love you, Mom." And, there is a whole lot of joy going on when he says, "Thanks for cleaning up my room." I don't take him for granted. He is a daily part of my life that makes my inner child sing at the top of her lungs. Does somebody always hear me? No. Does that mean I haven't been thankful for him? I don't think so.

I don't have the answer. And, don't really have any basis for my belief at this point. But through all my thoughts and pondering I have come to my personal conclusion that thankfulness should be a daily thing but should be more of the state you live your life in, content, than it is by simply saying, "I am thankful."

But no matter what, in the end, I think what a friend commented on her status rings with a lot of truth. The status again, "what if you woke up this morning with only the things you were thankful for yesterday." And, the comment, "I would still be thankful."