thank you

I think we spend a lot of time whining. and complaining. and generally being dissatisfied.

I noticed this evening that it's been a really long time since

WAIT.

-- see? I was just about to complain! --

OK.

start over.

Every year around the holidays, we hear endless stories and testimonials from folks who have decided (instead of falling victim to the great Capitalist Christmas Machine, hereafter known as the CCM) to direct their money, time, and etc. to a Good Cause.

the SPCA.
Doctors Without Borders.
Soup Kitchens, Charity Auctions, Rotary, Big Brothers, Clinics in Nepal, Housing in New Orleans, AIDS in East Oakland, Refugees in West Thessaloniki.

Well, this year for Christmas I don't have much extra money (and what there is is going to my kids). And I certainly don't have much extra time. So while I'd like nothing better (and this is really not an exaggeration) than to grab a white coat, a water bottle, and a thousand vials of quinine and take off for Darfur, I can't.

Last year at the Mavericks surf contest a spectator mom was quoted "Yeah, I'd love to do that! But I have a family, and someone has to make them lunch..."

Yup. Me too.

This year for Christmas, I will try to give myself, and my family, the gift of thanks, and the gift of grace. I will try to put aside my reactive, crabby, self-righteous self, and instead revel in the smell of my son's freshly-washed hair while he squirms in my grip and smears honey on the sofa. I will watch my daughter in dance class and marvel at the miracle of her perfect timing and intuitive movements. I will laugh at the 10 euro Parachute Santa who turns somersaults in my living room window and sings a canned "Better Watch Out!" while my son sits awestruck below. I will see my daughter's homework as an opportunity to learn something from her, and not the other way 'round.

I will try to.

I will try to actually enjoy doing the dishes and the laundry and the shopping and the cooking.

I will try to.

I will try to say thank you and please only when I mean them and not as the prelude to a demand or criticism --

will you PLEASE put your clothes away before I step on them again!

---

We are so fortunate. The luxury of complaining is the greatest measure of wealth, and the greatest waste of life.

OH MY GOD, I"M SO BUSY. - be thankful you are working.

EEEEEEW - gross! CHICKEN AGAIN? - be thankful you aren't hungry. really hungry.

TIMEOUT AGAIN!! - be thankful your children are able to go a bit wild.

---

This Christmas, I will try to say thanks to the world, and my family, and my friends, for the fact of my existence. For all the strange and beautiful and funny and mundane moments which fill my life now, and which will make up my memories later on.

I will not complain.

I will say thanks.