Daily Blessing and the Simple Things

Do you count your daily blessings?  At lowest points in my life I have run through the list.  It is one of those things you hear so often you think there has to be something to it.  The problem is I notice my list must have a repeat loop.  Or I have some major ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and I forget I've already mentioned them twenty times already.  The list starts..."I am thankful for..."

1. A healthy family/pets/ friends (the order is on purpose- the pets are my babies.)
2. For having a place to sleep and food to eat. (At times I have not had both and am so happy not to be there again.)
3. A job that I love.
4. The gift of writing.
5. A fit and healthy body that can breathe easily.
6. Africa and those that made it possible for me to see.
7. A long the same line...elephants and the smell of wild sage crushed beneath their hooves.
8. An artistic mind.
9. Air conditioning...this is Texas in June.
10. The Internet
11. Spell check
12. Travels I've experienced and those I have yet to get the stamp in my passport for.
13. Lavender and music and all the memories that they brings me.

This is where the list hits that loop...back to family.  It is not that I have had a deprived life.  It is rich in trials, that bring me greater appreciation for those things that really matter.  This morning while reading Zen Habits, I started thinking about this looping list of mine and wondered if others  struggled to come up with these daily list without repeats.

I am grateful.  When seductive depression licks her lips in my ear it is these thoughts that pull me out of a free fall.  The song 'The Simple Things' by Elizabeth Withers put it perfect. It is the simple things that we must focus on and celebrate daily.  The list spotlights the simple things, but does not end there.  If you struggle with the "loop" like I do, celebrate the small things focus less on the list.