Count Your Blessings

We are personally impacted by the Camp Fire in Paradise. My sister is a counselor and teacher in Paradise. She was pushing students into teachers' cars to get the staff and kids to safety as the flames raced toward the high school. She drove her car with students through the smoke so thick and black she could not see ahead even with her lights on. She made it. And then began organizing for the staff, families and kids who had lost everything. This is who she is. I am so grateful she is alive and able to support her community. I could go on and on about what she and her family have done but I think this writing by "Marci" of Colorado expresses my state of mind well.

"Gratitude is one of life's greatest gifts, and it is free for the choosing. When we make this choice, we are demonstrating an understanding of our free will.

Gratitude is a state of mind we cultivate in ourselves that enables us to understand that often it is our greatest challenges and losses that bring us our greatest lessons.

Gratitude is the place from which we recognize life's compensations that are always before us, so we can enjoy each day with Thanksgiving."

Even in the horror of the fires we have a choice to go forward with graditude for the commuity that shares,

the lives saved,

the friends that support us,

the children that are resilient

the future we will build.