Things seem to be progressing well enough on my unwanted journey. There is plenty of reason for hope. But still, despite my faith in God and assurances that things will be okay, I believe nothing is guaranteed for the outcome. Even so, if my hoped-for outcome isn’t what happens, I am grateful for all the good things that I have had in my life up to this point.<\/p>\n
There are a number of significant things I am grateful for:
\n– I am thankful for the 63 years I’ve been able to be on this earth. I have lived significantly longer than both my mother and my first wife did.
\n– I am grateful for about two decades with each of my two wives (still counting for my current wife)
\n– I appreciate my four biological children that have been in my life for over three decades
\n– I enjoy the times with my four grandchildren and enjoy seeing them grow and mature
\n– I am grateful for the way my oldest daughter, the mom of my grandchildren, treats and teaches her children; I am grateful to be able to observe that on occasion
\n– I am happy that my kids and grandkids are all close-by in Tooele
\n– I’m thankful for my father and mother and two sisters and the good times I’ve had with each of them individually and as a family
\n– I’m thankful for many of my relatives whom I’ve had good times with over the years
\n– I am grateful for good friends who care about me for me, not out of some obligation or a hope to get something from me
\n– I am thankful for changes I went through in my thirties that led me to a deep faith in my Creator, the God of the universe
\n– I am also thankful to have the many supports to my faith, such as scripture, prayer, church, and so on
\n– I am thankful for 23 years in the United States Air Force, where I learned my electronics skills, learned to work with a variety of people, learned to do my part with the team, and learned some supervision and management skills; I am thankful for my continued income over the past 20 years as a military retiree
\n– I am thankful how my computer hobby that started in high school has helped me now in the modern world of computers everywhere; I got started right at the beginning of the “home computer” (1979-1980)
\n– I am thankful during these financially unsure times for parents who set an example of managing their money and for my learning something from that
\n– I am thankful for my education I have been able to achieve, mostly paid for by the Air Force and also some from money my father left me when he passed on in 2018
\n– I have benefited so many years from knowledge to work on my own vehicles, which was sparked by my father having me help him with his cars; that led me to take an auto shop class in high school, which further built my knowledge that I have used ever since (thankful for this)
\n– I am thankful for the four years my family lived in Greece; I gained a lot from the time: I met my dad’s side of the family, I learned the Greek language, and I gained an appreciation for the food and music of Greece. With streaming, I can now listen to the music any time and some Greek cuisine isn’t hard to find around here. I consider those four years the best times of my growing up.
\n– I am thankful for not getting an illness or condition worse than my own; I recently read about people getting hip or knee replacements not being able to get in bed or the shower without help from someone else–there can always be something worse than what we’re going through
\n– I’m grateful I can get my treatments here in Tooele
\n– I am thankful how this unexpected trial has given me a new way to talk about light
\n– I appreciate our little dog that has been a good addition to our home, as much as I did not want a dog in the first place
\n– I’m thankful for a reliable van that we’ve owned for 25 years and has transported our family many thousands of miles and on many trips, since my children were young<\/p>\n
LWB There are also many things we ALL (or at least most of us) can probably be thankful for: There are many things I could find to complain about or ways to feel unfairly treated by life, but light comes through gratitude, not complaining. We all have a list of good things to be thankful for (yes, sometimes it may be hard to find and may take practice to do it–just start and do it). In the comments, go ahead and share something you’re grateful for.<\/p>\n Emil Therianos, If you’ve missed the two previous posts regarding my current journey, you can access them here: Things seem to be progressing well enough on my unwanted journey. There is plenty of reason for hope. But still, despite my faith in God and assurances that things will be okay, I believe nothing is guaranteed for the outcome. Even so, if my hoped-for outcome isn’t what happens, I am grateful for all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[252,6],"tags":[250,91,251],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratitude","category-light","tag-gratitude","tag-hope","tag-optimism"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightwardbound.org\/Main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I’m thankful to have been able to start up Lightward Bound
\n– I’m thankful for some small successes with it that have been important to me
\n– I’m thankful for enough computer skills that I could set up the Lightward Bound website
\n– I’m happy that, recently, I finally got a “Light” menu item added to the site–it was long overdue; I hope you’ll check out the new menu item at https:\/\/lightwardbound.org<\/a>
\n– I’m glad for opportunities to have a Lightward Bound booth at a few 2024 events within our county
\n– I’m thankful for a few family members and friends who helped with aspects of those booths
\n– I appreciate people whom I have met as I’ve tried to get people involved in the organization and the cause of light<\/p>\n
\n– Being alive
\n– Having a place to live
\n– Having a way to get around to where we need to go
\n– Modern communication and information technologies that give us broad access to people and information
\n– Access to many products, services, and conveniences, locally and even at our homes
\nThere are also simple, daily things to be grateful for, such as: getting through an intersection safely before the light turns red or getting in a short line at the store.<\/p>\n
\nFounder, Lightward Bound<\/p>\n
\n#1 – Beginning an Unwanted Journey<\/a>
\n#2 – Still Surviving Cancer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"