I am thankful for people like my friend Nic who have the courage to share their story at Violence Unsilenced

I am thankful for friends like Sara who wished me a happy birthday about a dozen times on the day and continues to wish me a happy birthday + 1day, +2days… which makes me laugh.

I am thankful for friends like the Duchess who’s latest announcement is proof that miracles can and do happen

I am thankful for my husband Bil who is willing to get up at 3am with a sick kid to give me a turn to sleep.

I am thankful for my Vista. Even though we have our issues, she is generally healthy, and she is here with me. I am very thankful for that.

I am thankful for the loving support of my friends on Twitter. I can’t tell you how much it means to wake up and see a dozen messages asking how V and I are. It makes my heart want to burst with love for you guys.

Then around 11 I discovered teeny-bopper pop icons and their posters went up like wallpaper around my room.  I sang their songs, I dressed their dress.  I wanted to be just like them.

By high school, my love of reading took over and my favorite authors became the object of my fixation.  Their words took me away and banished the teenage angst.  “I want to be just like them when I grow up”

Now that I’m in my 30′s,  I’m not a pop music sensation, or an famous author.  I’m something even better.  I’m a mom.

And being a mom has allowed me to discover a whole to world.  A world filled with other moms who also blog.  Who share their struggles with being a parent and a wife.  Who bare their souls.  Who use their web voice to confront the demons that haunt them.  Who do what they must to overcome.

And I find myself inspired.  And thankful.  Oh so thankful, I have these women to turn to when things are rough. When I have a bad day.  And when I need to know it’s going to get better.

These women are my my new heroes.  And I want to be just like them.

“Wow… the sky just goes on forever and ever”

And we laugh.  Give a smile and a nod.

But it’s one of those things you take for granted when you see it every day.  It becomes so common place that you forget about it.

I was driving through some of the back country roads the other day and it struck me that the sky really does go on forever.  On a clear, sunny day I can get up, make a coffee, stand on my back porch and admire the Rocky Mountains in the distance.  And in every direction there’s clear blue sky as far as the eye can see.

That’s why I chose the picture I did, for yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday.

Because sometimes we need to be reminded to stop and take a look around at what we have.