Not quite a native Ripley Countian - she attended only her last year of high school in Doniphan though she taught in the R-1 system for 32 years - Teresa (Pearson) Lee delights in surprising readers and herself with anecdotal observations of life in general. Maybe you can blame her St.Louis roots for a quirky humor and some slightly-askewed opinions, but never doubt she writes from the heart.

Action Required

Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2019, at 8:21 PM

~~Focus on being more thankful, not on having more to be thankful for. ~~

That is the gist of a message I saw recently on a church sign. Definitely food for thought.

We grow into adulthood with mindsets that we want good jobs in order to have more rather than do more.

That creates issues when we get older. We have stuff we no longer want and a longer list of stuff we want to do. Retirement incomes may be fixed and/or limited, and our bodies may begin to retaliate so regret starts lurking, if we're not careful, as we dream about places and activities that beckon.

In this Thanksgiving time, I am indeed grateful for what I have but I am gaining a deeper appreciation for what I can do with what I have. The material stuff is no longer the foundation of that gratitude. Now I place more value on connections, experiences and responsibilities I have along with the health that allows me to interact and enjoy them more. Is everything peachy all the time? No, certainly not, but I am fortunate to still be able to entertain options when life does not go as planned.

As we sail toward Christmastime, I am ever grateful for the love that is the foundation of the season as I search for ways to share it in my world.