11-22-12~blessings

Thanksgiving morning.

At 6:00 a.m. exactly, Piper does her usual paws on my back wake up call and I try negotiating with her, “Piper go lay down, not now…30 more minutes”. She doesn’t budge. I mean look at that face? Does she look remotely interested in a compromise?

She will stare me down until I call mercy; she wins, I lose.

So, with a cheerful spirit, I roll out of bed in search of my jacket, boots, and dog leash. Piper’s love language is chasing cows. And the cows? not so much. Therefore, I have to walk her on a leash in order to keep the peace here on the farm. And of course, it’s my most favorite thing to do. EVER. At 6 a.m.

This morning as I walked her and Brody, I got thinking about the blessings I’ve found in the plan B moments of my life:

~It wasn’t my idea to be out walking a dirt road at the crack of dawn, but I experienced the simple stillness of the morning. It was beautiful.

~It wasn’t my desire to have yet one more lower leg issue (the 50 mile week however WAS my idea!), but I’ve rediscovered how much I love gliding through the water. It’s been wonderful.

~It wasn’t my wish to be single with four children at this stage of my life, but the process proved that I was stronger than I thought. It wasn’t wasted.

If your willing to look for it, there is something of value to be found when you’re in an unexpected place. So this was where my heart was this Thanksgiving; giving thanks for the blessings found in the process of an unexpected journey.

~I have wonderful friends because something didn’t go as I had thought.

~I have a home I love, on a farm I adore, because something didn’t go as I had planned.

~I have discovered parts of who I am and my passions because something didn’t go as I had expected.

So as I sit here hiding in the woods, finishing this post {via iPhone} now four days after I started it on Thanksgiving day; I look around and the irony of where I sit strikes me…

…this specific place, tucked away in what has become my all-time favorite place on this trail, I accidentally found one day when I was scared because I was lost, an unexpected journey if you will. I now come here often because it has become a sanctuary for me. And so I grin from ear to ear, with a thankful heart, and lay back on the rocks to let the thoughts linger a while~

Yes, there are definitely blessings in the process of an unexpected journey.