I’m feeling grateful for a lot of things this week. Moving house and country can be emotionally exhausting sometimes, but there are so many blessings in it too. Sneaky blessings that slip their way in as the door is closing and you almost don’t notice them making themselves at home. So today for my friday favourites, I’m just practising naming the many things I am grateful for in this new place…
- I’m grateful for advent, for the expectation that I’ll slow down, think more, pray more, remember what is important as we wait through these dark winter months for the light to come again.
- I’m grateful for our new home, which is warm and welcoming and already feels like ours.
- I’m grateful for modern technology that helps me keep in touch with so many loved ones – for early morning skype calls, surprises sent by text, emails reminding me I’m missed.
- I’m grateful for my first friend here in Luxembourg, for her fun company as we figure out this brand new country to us and make trips to Ikea.
- I’m grateful for all the good food and drink we consume, for the variety and taste, for the start of the clementine season which fills me with four or five of those delicious orange beauties every day.
- I’m grateful for the sunshine. It seems to be a rare occurrence at this time of year in Luxembourg, so every time it breaks through the low grey clouds and fills our flat with warmth, I drop everything I’m doing and rush to sit in the patch of sunlight on the floor. This tends to be in our study which is the one room still looking like a bomb hit it, but I love the sun so much that I am content to sit surrounded by precarious piles of books, dvds, bags of cables, boxes of stationary and crafts…
- I’m grateful for my husband. This adventure is so much more exciting and less lonely to do it with my best friend.
- I’m grateful for mothers who send their children gifts in the post for advent. We have the best two women in the world as our mothers. Please try not to be jealous.
- I’m grateful for things to look forward to. My future is full – a dear friend coming to visit, a quick trip back to our old city, a Christmas lunch planned for new colleagues and friends, the long drive back to Oxford for Christmas with my family. With so much to look forward to, it is impossible to feel empty.
