As we’re all perfectly well aware, this is the time of year that we’re all supposed to be thankful. I’ve been trying for well over a week now to put together a post on gratitude and thankgiving. I wanted to write something profound and moving. I’ve put together draft after draft and had even committed to posting one last Wednesday and then my website host went ca-poof and the kibosh was put on that plan as my blog was down for an entire day.

My mother used to blame the devil for little acts like that. She wasn’t the type to call that boy “the devil” or give Lucifer credit for mass shootings, etc. It was the little things that she used to say were acts of the devil – things like getting into an argument on Sunday morning making us late to church. He’s sneaky like that and tries to keep you from worship.

So on Wednesday after I spent hours crafting a post about being thankful to our Heavenly Father and sending a few praises His way, this happened and my blog just didn’t exist. My mother immediately came to mind. I’m not sure if it was really his handy work or if perhaps I just wasn’t supposed to publish that draft, I wasn’t completely satisfied with it anyway.

Either way, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am over thinking it. I keep feeling like gratitude should be easy to come by. I have food on my table, a roof over my head, a beautiful family and the list goes on and on. But I’ve been searching for thankfulness and contentment still.

And then I realized I don’t need to search for it, it’s just here. It’s all around me. Why am I working so hard to find a warm and fuzzy feeling? I need to just embrace the feelings that are already in my home. My life is a mess. My business is not perfect. My kids are driving me crazy at this very moment. I will always and forever find things to tweak and change and try to perfect in my life. But I need to embrace the thankfulness in the here and now and stop looking out the windows beyond my own home.

Photography: Katie Grace Photography & Videography

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy, Wizard of Oz.