Celebrating gratitude this holiday season
Dear readers: I asked you to submit responses about what you’re grateful for this year. In the spirit of the season — love, gratitude, family and cheer — I want to share some of your lovely responses.
Dear Annie: I’m incredibly grateful to have built a happy home for myself. I grew up in a household with parents who were constantly fighting and bringing me in the middle of their issues. It also didn’t help that we always had money issues and my parents would make me worry that we wouldn’t have a house one day because it would be taken from us. Coming home was a traumatic experience. I would find any excuse to stay at a friend’s house or to participate in after-school activities so I wouldn’t have to face my home life. But my parents were strict, so I spent lots of time at home feeling depressed and wanting to escape.
I never pictured being with anybody because of this relationship example. But I met my current boyfriend when I was 15, and we’ve been together ever since. We have now lived together for two years. Our relationship is so healthy, and our home is perfect. Every day I come home to a quiet home and a loving partner. I feel so grateful to, first, have a roof over my head at all, and second, to have been able to create my own positive environment. Life is so good!
Love Starts at Home
Dear Annie: I am thankful for my loving, supportive and wise husband of 49 years. I am thankful for my teaching career, from which I continue to learn, my kind and compassionate friends and neighbours, and this lovely God-created world and the life I am living in it. Thanks and Gratitude in Arizona
Dear Annie: I am thankful for restoration this year! Last year, my husband of 20 years and I were separated, and I really didn’t think there would be any reconciliation. After being apart for 15 months, we decided that our love was too precious to throw away.
True Love Deserves a Second Chance
Dear Annie: My daughter passed away unexpectedly on June 10, 2021, from complications of diabetes. She was 52. Her second grandchild was born on May 30 while she was in the hospital. I am thankful that I was able to be with my granddaughter, her husband and their three-year-old daughter and six-month-old son on this first holiday without my wonderful daughter. My son and a couple of friends joined us. I am 82 and blessed to have been able to do this. Blessed With a Loving Family