Gratitude Project Day 4

Today I am going to my mom's to spend the day with her. Her 62nd birthday is tomorrow. We are going to make beer butt chicken (I am providing the beer and the cooker), a really good salad with my grandmother-in-France's vinaigrette (made with Dijon mustard and lots of garlic), and some good crusty bread. Today I am beyond grateful for my mom. As some of you may or may not know, my father died really suddenly and very young (at age 36-he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia and died about 2 weeks later). I was 5 years old when he died, my sister 8. My mother never remarried, and she raised us by herself. Regardless of our issues, of anything I ever did as a rather challenging teenager, my mom was and is always there to support me. She has never judged me, she has always loved me unconditionally, she has sacrificed much to ensure my success, and she has been eternally proud of everything I am and that I have tried to do. She taught me the power of forgiveness, of laughter and finding the humor in painful and difficult situations, of letting go, of finding value not in what you have but in who you are, how to see the good and the best of people, how to truly listen, and the meaning of being a deeply thoughtful and grateful person and finding joy in the everyday pleasures that life gives us, the things most people often overlook.