I am a lot more thankful for my life than I deserve to be. Apple's Photo app automatically generates memory slide shows. Over the past few weeks it has given me my year in the Philippines, the trip to Paris, mom's 70th birthday in Austria and Southern Germany, Christmas in Cairo, New Years in Berlin. And I smile. My life has been better than I have deserved. The memories are all happy.
So that last sentence is weird though. Because I remember being not happy several times over the time periods covered by these photos. In some cases, I remember times when I was very unhappy, or really mad at Katie, or super remorseful over how dumb I can be in my parenting. Yet, despite this, all my reflections bring me a sense of contentment, peace, and happiness. I am thankful for gratitude.
I am not any kind of great or special person. I can't even really take credit for choosing gratitude, though I suppose I've tried my best. It came to me as a gift. I am even a bit surprised by the extent of it. I am thankful. I am convinced this gratitude is a gift came from a loving God.
Some say there is no evidence of God. Oh, it's everywhere. There is only to look.
Meanwhile, I am in Shanghai this week and I visited this very fun market today and got Katie some possibly real pearl earrings. They might be fake. But they might be real and they look great. I made sure to get a pic of the garbage sweeper. This market is basically like Nordstrom. People come up to you and ask what you want and you can say almost literally anything under the sun, and then they will take you to that thing. Like having a personal shopper. Then, they pester you about getting more things and it gets a little annoying, but whatever, it was totally fun.
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