GRATITUDE, DAY 3

So my thought for November was, "Why wait for one day to be grateful? Thanksgiving should happen ALL the time". I am striving to stir up my well of gratitude every day this month and I hope you will be inspired to do the same.  Today I am grateful for the love and the lessons of my dog, Layla. That four-legged beast has no idea the salvation she brought into my life that first day we met. She was just a scraggly, mal-nutritioned, slightly abused and neglected sack of bones at the time. I didn't even think she looked like a proper Siberian Husky. But after taking her in, even when life turned ugly, when my husband walked out the door, when I didn't know where we were going to live, and when I just couldn't tell anyone else how my heart was broken, she was there. Her soft eyes and scratchy tongue and warm paws gave me a kind of unconditional love that no one else could provide and through her basic needs for shelter and exercise and food she provided a structure and a discipline that somehow brought me into the best place of my life. By looking after her i rediscovered, in the oddest of ways, my family, my faith, my identity, and the love of a beautiful man. I could go on and on...but that four legged beast is really my four legged angel. She was God's gift to me over 5 years ago and even when I couldn't see it, God used the unthinkable and the slightest  and the silliest things to bring wisdom and order and peace to my life. Thank you God, and thank you Layla. What is your gratitude? It might not be the obvious, it might be a precious gem that lays just under the surface. Look all around you. The best gifts lay below our easy radar. My gift stands just under three feet tall and still likes to pull the leash. Go figure, but I wouldn't trade her for anything. :)