Are you grateful? For what?

I am about to leave for the beach later this afternoon. Every year my family - my parents, siblings and their families and our family - go to Emerald Isle, NC for a week. I guess we've been going to the same oceanfront house now for 7 years. It's a lot of fun. I feel very fortunate to have such generous parents who rent the house that provides for such nice family time together. My daughter wasn't even a year old the first time we went, now she is almost 8. A lot has changed over the years. Packing is certainly easier now - no diapers, water wings, formula, fifty million sand toys. One thing that hasn't changed is that it is always a great time together - whether the house was filled to the brim because everyone was there or it was a smaller crowd because some folks couldn't make it one year.

As I sit here procrastinating, needing to shower and pack up the final few things that didn't get done last night I am feeling quite grateful. Grateful for my family; for the fact that we are able to take this vacation during such difficult economic times; for kind neighbors who will keep an eye on our house while we're away and water our flowers on the deck so they will survive the 90 degree week that's expected; for the sun and the sand and the ocean - our natural playground for the next week; for the memories that will again be created by being together with loved ones.

There is a lot to not be grateful for these days - the economy, the price of gas, the record number of foreclosures, budget cuts at schools, the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, to name a few. It is easy to get down, to dwell on all that's going awry in the world as a whole or in your little slice of the world. I'm not so grateful that my house trim is in dire need of painting and that a very large tree in my backyard has died and needs to be taken down. We all have little or big things that are not so going so well in our lives but I bet that if you try you can think about many, many things that are pretty great. I find that when I dwell on those great things - no matter how big or how small - I feel better. I feel grateful.

Are you grateful? For what?