Good Things on a Saturday

My friend Lisa frequently posts entries listing Ten Good Things in her life. Lisa opened a restaurant awhile back -- a fine restaurant which Soccer Dad and I have, in fact, visited, since we make the trek to Oregon on occasion -- which means that she faces a myriad of challenges, and her Ten Good Things reminds us to look for the good that co-exists with the misery.

RevDrKate over at Prairie Light is posting daily expressions of gratitude during this month of November. She entitles them NaBloPoMo and I don't know what that means, but the idea is clear.

And me, what have I been doing? W-H-I-N-I-N-G. I realized last night that my posts have begun to sound like some of the letters my grandother used to receive from friends who would enclose lengthy descriptions of their latest tribulations in their Christmas cards. Most of them had to do with broken hips and the consequences thereof. I don't want to minimize the trials associated with broken body parts, especially as experienced by very old ladies, but I do want to get on with it in my own life. Herewith, then, without further ado, a list of people and things Gannet is grateful for at this very moment:

1. Soccer Dad, who has without complaint taken over huge areas of our lives that used to lie within my domain, and has done so with utter grace and calm. The bills are paid and the front hallway is plastered and half painted. (OK, fine, plastering was never in my domain. I can admit that.)

2. The Lovely Daughter, who has become a friend (to me) of compassion, common sense, insight, and good humor.

3. My brother, who calls me every few nights, always full of concern and encouragement.

4. The Jesuit friends who offer me gracious and safe harbors in which to share my life of prayer with all of its attendant joys and disappointments.

5. The still-yellow leaves out there; the skies are gray today, but the earth in my part of the world is enveloped in yellow.

6. The friend of twenty years who gave me a stunningly beautiful fish pendant to see me through seminary (we hope!).

7. The fact that some of the best Italian restaurants in the world are a short walk down the hill.

8. This very cool photograph of myself that I found online this morning when theoretically I was studying Greek contract verbs.

9. The existence of Chartres Cathedral.

10. Same for the Atlantic Ocean.

Grace abounds.