{grateful}

So I've been doing this "Project Gratitude" album on Facebook to try and stay positive and look for something I'm grateful for each day.  I've been feeling guilty for falling behind and not posting every day (which was not the point of the project!) Maybe it's partially because I'm not as grateful as I should be, but mostly because I've been so insanely busy lately.

On Tuesday I drove to Hoquiam for a volunteer project.  It was a dreary day.  And when I say dreary, I mean dreary!  On the way home it was raining buckets on the narrow roads and bridges along highway 12.  I was exhausted.  Before I headed home, I grabbed some coffee and lunch and put in my new Lucinda Williams CD and cranked it up. I was driving and listening and pondering her matchless ability to write lyrics that penetrate your heart.  I drove through this area of low-lying farmland that was flooded from the recent rains.  I thought, "man I'm glad I don't live down there!"

 I was listening to the words of "Copenhagen:"  

But you, have disappeared

You have been released

You are flecks of light

You are missed

Somewhere, spinning round the sun

Circling the moon

Traveling through time

You are missed

Then it hit me.

My mind was instantly flooded with images I've seen of the disaster in Japan; people's homes completely under water and utterly destroyed. Entire towns gone; families ripped apart.  Little babies like my own found alive after two days in the rubble. Exposure to radiation, contamination, and hypothermia. 

I suddenly felt much more grateful for what I have.  So I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped this photo to remind me that it's all about your perspective.  You may feel that each day is a dreary journey of survival.  Sometimes it may be.  But don't forget that, like the title of Lucinda's new album, we are "blessed" in many ways that others are not. We cannot forget that.