One hundred gifts

Ann Voskamp is a name you might not have heard before.  She is a farmer's wife who lives in Canada where she raises (and homeschools) her six children.  She is also the author of the book One Thousand Gifts, a book wherein she chronicles her journey towards living a full and joyful life, even when life is her life on the farm and will not (and should not) be anything more glamorous. She tells of her discovery that our gratitude for the many gifts God gives is key to our joy:  "Isn't it here? The wonder? Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?..."

Ann begins to list out, until she reaches one thousand, the gifts she sees in daily life. I was impressed by her list, and impressed as I saw her joy and wonder grow while she captured even small glimpses of glory and beauty, including things that may seem silly, like the pile of freshly grated cheese on a pizza she was making --
"...Happy in all these things that God gives. Ridiculously happy over slips of cheese. That I am, and it's wild, and oh, I am the one who laughs. Me! Changed! Surprised by joy! 
Joy is the realist reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy."

I could go on about this book, but suffice it to say it has inspired me to begin a list of my own: one hundred gifts. I am one who all too often thinks only of what I do not have, and grasps for it. I miss the receiving part and think of only how to provide for myself, and so I miss God's provision to me in the present, and so I do not recognize His love and I forfeit joy. When I stop grasping and instead pause and take note of what has been given, maybe I will see that it is enough. At least that is what Ann saw.

What better place to post a few of these things than my blog? Point-and-shoot camera in hand, here begins a new series...