Gratitude

    Living with my family in my Grandparent's basement is challenging.  There's no room to live, I share a 'room' with two of my sisters. My clothes are found all over the place because there are no dressers or shelves to place them.

    Despite the challenges of living in such cramped places I feel so grateful for all the many things that I do have, the growth that I have experienced these past months, and the miracles I have witnessed.

I am grateful for:

A bed to sleep in

The heater that keeps me from freezing every night

Water

Music

Being so close to my sisters all the time. Giving them hugs and loves and talking to them way past bedtime!

My drum set!

Being so close to town and to work

An uphill run in every direction

Family time all the time

Vision board and pictures to motivate me to give my all

Dear friends who fill me with joy and love

Losing stuff every day and always finding it(sooner or later)

The Food Channel

Family adventures together to get out of the house

the dishwasher!

my own shower and bathroom that I don't have to share

Amazing Spiritual experiences at Church

Helping Grandma and Grandpa

Being so close to the Temple

The events that brought about the change in my schedule, which have made me able to do what I want, and have brought someone lief to me.

What I am grateful for most of all is the room at the end of the hallway.

    To everyone else it's just a storage room.  To me it is my escape.  My hiding place. Where I go when I need to pour out my soul to God. Sometimes in distress for help and support, and other times in gratitude and happiness for the miracles and answers He gives me.

    I know that some people have walked in and seen me kneeling, but they don't know the beauty of what happens at those times.

    I have come to know more intimately my Heavenly Father. His love and His comfort for me.  How to listen to Him in the quiet.  How to speak openly, for when I pray in there my prayers are always vocal.

    To understand what He has in store for me, clarity on past revelations, feeling peace when my soul is in turmoil.

    At times life in this crowded basement is challenging.  Having lived and enjoyed so many beautiful things in my life in the past month, I wouldn't change being here for the world.  I trust that more trials will come and with those even more grand and wonderful things will happen!

Thank you Grandma's Basement for changing my life for the best

    ~Quixoticism

Shasta

I've been reading through the books from the Chronicles of Narnia.  Right now I'm about finished with the Horse and His Boy. It is by far my favorite book in the series right now.

    The thing that I love about it is the Destiny of this small boy who felt he had no significance in life and was only treated barely better than a slave.

    Shasta is a young boy that was rescued by a fisherman when he was just a baby who came along a talking horse and together they decided to run away from their old lives and live for freedom!

    Along the way he made some good friends and had many adventures.  The greatest thing that he does though is a dangerous and hard trip through the desert to get to a people in order to warn them that they are going to be attacked.

    He is pushed to the very limits of his faith, strength and courage in order to make it, and right when he expends the last of his effort he encounters some of the people he is trying to warn who are then able to carry the message the rest of the way.

    He tries to follow them but gets left behind and but decides to keep going in hopes that he's headed in the right direction.

    Shasta wanders in the foggy mountains and is joined by an unseen companion who travels with him for a while. He asks Shasta to tell him of his sorrows and he laments how unfortunate his life has been up to this point with all the troubles that he had faced.

    The stranger tells him he is not unfortunate at all, but is very blessed, and through all those hard and difficult times He was there to make sure that Shasta was safe and pushed him to give his all in order to save the people.

    I was really moved by this.  Although it feels at times like I'm very inadequate, with no special talents or gifts, and that I've have had many hard times in my life, it makes me aware how close Heavenly Father really is.

    That He placed me where I am in life to learn things about myself.  To conquer fears, doubts, temptations, and weaknesses. To grow and learn faith, hope, courage, and love.

    He pushes me beyond what I think I am capable of taking in order that I will be able to fulfill the Destiny that He has given to me.

    He's been there at times and I've had no idea, at times when I haven't deserved it, the times when I have, and the times when I've needed Him the most.

    I am eternally grateful for my Loving Father. Especially for the strength and healing He has given me as I've struggled the past two weeks with things pertaining to true and endless love.

    Now back to Shasta.  He went on to discover that he was the son of a wonderful and kind King and he would someday also be king.  It makes my heart leap and sing and know that I will discover more greatness in myself beyond that which I already have.

Best of all he got the girl.  Which gives me hope that I will get mine too!