A month of thanks

I read a blog post the other day that I loved.  Instead of just doing the usual facebook gratitude posts (which I also love, btw), the post has prompts for each day, leading up to Thanksgiving.  Today’s prompt was “blessing.”

I’m going thru a relatively difficult patch.  Actually, we are, as a family.  Scheduling concerns, school drama, parenting challenges, career woes, etc.  Nothing overwhelming or extraordinary, but still… difficult.  And what’s great about is that it’s really brought us together, as a family.  As a couple.   Because we’re a team, Marc and I.  We’re buddies.  It’s not just that he’s my husband, it’s not just that he’s my best friend.  He’s my other half.  And if the past few months have done anything, they’ve reinforced how very, very lucky I am to have him.  Because when I get stressed and panicked, he doesn’t.  He’s calm, and stable and reassuring, and the balance is what works.  My strengths compliment his weaknesses and he’s strong in all the ways that I’m not.

I’m not saying that we don’t fight, because we can.  I’m not saying that there aren’t days when he makes me nuts, or days when he probably wants to kill me for not neatly putting away the silverware.  But at the end of the day – he’s still my best friend, and I’m his.  He’s what makes my life work.

There’s a small scene at very end of Jerry Maguire – and every time we watch the movie, Marc gets all teary-eyed.  And when my cousin Becky got engaged, we were toasting them, she and Greg (which is sort of like a blessing – at least for the purposes of this post), and this is the blessing that Marc used.  “Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.”

So even though we’ve got a zillion little problems right now, and the brakes need to be replaced and Christmas/Hanukkah are coming up, and Marc’s working crazy hours and we’re mostly overwhelmed – we’ve got each other.  And more than each other, we’ve got these great kids, Lilli and Sarah, and our three, Jessie Bug Noodle, Samilicious Boy, and our Julianna Chocolate Chip.  So even though we don’t have all the answers, and we’ve had our failures as much as successes – we really do love each other, and love the life that we’ve created together.  And the blessing that I wish for everyone, especially my own children, is that they have our kind of success.