:)

I occasionally stop and take a brief inventory of my blessings. Among them are:
No friends or relatives who are chronically sick and in need of my constant care. Well there's Pooh, but hopefully those health issues will be resolved by next year. No friends or relatives who are imprisoned, or suffering from addiction, or are victims of violent crime, or are missing.

Aside from what is not, I am also grateful for what is:
Thank God I'm Catholic, that we have Church, that we have priests, Brothers, Sisters, nuns ... the religious. It blows me away that we have people praying for us while we're too busy about our lives. Part of our intercessory at mass is "we pray for those who have no one to pray for them."

Thank God for the small things in life. Today Pooh and I hold in our hands the titles to our cars. Yup, the two cars are now paid out. They both are in need of repair, but never mind that for the moment. We are now freed from the car payments that we couldn't quite afford. Um, that called for a good dinner - one that you eat with a knife and fork, not one that you hold in your hands between two pieces of bread.