Today I am thankful for

BOOKS!
I love to read. I love books
I love the places they take you and the ideas they put in your head. I enjoy discussing them with friends, the really exciting bits and the parts that make you tear up even when you almost refuse to read that one particular book anymore ( "...Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia" C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle). No matter what I love them. I even love textbooks....ok mostly history texts but still. A few times we were allowed to keep our English texts and I still read the stories from that now and again. In fifth grade, my teacher searched for quite some time to find an age-appropriate book I hadnt read so we could do a class book that year. I was such a nerd! But Im thankful that God has given people the gift of writing fiction, of wonderfully capturing non-fiction and giving us characters to aspire to be like.

*I have always identified with Jo from Little Women and Claudia from The Babysitter's Club. I wanted to be Felicity and Addy and Samantha....be a part of history that is. I wanted to go to Narnia with Peter, Susan, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, Jill, Polly and Digory. I wanted to chase mysteries with Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children and I wanted to travel the prarie with Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie. I think I lived through them so much. Sometimes too much. At least I didnt expect life to really be like Sweet Valley High!

Heavenly Father, Thank you for authors, for painters, for musicians for actors for sculptors and dancers and singers. For clothing designers and interior designers. Thanks for giving your children the creative bug! The need to put beauty in our lives, to surround ourselves with it just as you created an entire planet for us to enjoy. Thank you for " the need to express to communicate".