Aren't we tired of the B-word......?

I know I am tired of it.  It controls my life sometimes... you know the one; B-U-S-Y.

Yep, that one.  I am so tired of losing the only resource we cannot gain back in our lives.  Especially when I am losing it in a season where I am spending the majority of time doing things I don't even want to do.

BUT, (my favorite B-word), but I am coming up on a time that I will enjoy, very soon.  I have my field study for graduate school coming up.  This field study just happens to be in Mongolia, and I just so happen to get a few days before hand in Korea (yes the Asian nation that stole my heart).

So I will enjoy great food, lounge in jjimjilbangs, meet up with friends, and get to enjoy two services with my church. I haven't planned a lot about it, but I am going to be in Seoul and Busan.  And I am going to be so happy.

Other updates:

• The woodpeckers have fledged and after much chasing with lenses we were able to spot one of our banded ones in the wild.
• Burn season will close in the next few weeks, bringing our increasingly smaller team down to 2 people which means more fun scienc-y land management will be in my workdays.
• I am hoping to meet my dad, stepmom, and dog down in Savannah just before heading off to my field study.  I am beyond joyful about that too!

The Thankful List

This morning I sat down to my quite time with a bowl of Special K chocolate berry.  Yum!  And I began to write in my journal.  I noticed that I have fallen so far behind on my list of things that I am thankful for.  And just recently have I been able to write down a few scribbles.

The thankful list was a practice I started October of last year.  I was struggling to find an attitude of gratitude so I began the list.  Everyday I would sit down and write out my gratitude for the little gifts in my life.  When I first got home from the adventure that took me so long and so far, I thought that I no longer needed that list to get through.  But truly, it isn't about "getting through" any more.  It's about being thankful for what the Lord has given you.

So I put down my spoon and picked up my pen again.  "#1394.  Cold milk in my cereal!"  A couple months ago, I would have dug my journal out of my bag to write this one with a swelling heart.  I was in the land of powdered milk re-hydrated in room temp water.  This got me thinking... here in the place where I have so much to be thankful for, why is it so hard to recognize God's little gifts?

I think it is because, "familiarity breeds contempt" as my Korean church says.  These little gifts like cold milk or warm showers are no longer blessings but expectations.  Being in the land of plenty makes us expect no less...and unfortunately I have fallen into that.

My prayer is that I will be ever grateful and that I will enjoy the blessings that He intends for me.  That I will not expect the good things to happen, but instead to hope for them and praise His name when they come.  And then I will find a heart of true gratitude.