One Thousand Gifts in December

I'm reading Ann’s journey again, and it is as though I’m reading it for the first time.  How fast was I skimming before that I missed this much?  I slow down, breathe the words in, one at a time.  I live them, in this moment.  

I need to do this.  

How have I known this truth for over a year now, and have still been living in the dark shadows of discontent and skepticism?  

I have a sudden thought.  How many days left until the end of 2011?  December 1 is Thursday.  31 days.  

I pull out my phone and press “calculator”.  1000 divided by 31 days is… just under 33.  


If I write down 33 gifts every day of December, I will finish counting to 1000 by New Year’s Eve.  (No need to post every list online - that will just slow me down.  Highlights, maybe, or joy-lights…) The important thing is having beautiful white paper somewhere visible, and a colorful pen full of ink.  Writing.  Writing down all the gifts of December’s moments, the presence of my God to me, in my life.  Right here, right now.  Writing with the skin, the blood, the muscles, so the mind and heart remember: give thanks.  Live joy.  

I want to finish this year with joy.  I want to be brimful of it on New Year’s Eve, paging back through even just one solid, final month of giving wild, extravagant, non-stop thanks.  

Can I do it?  With all the hectic busyness, etc?  Maybe it's because of all the hectic busyness I need to do it.  

And even just trying will jumpstart my joy-meter.  

I pull out a blank notebook with hummingbirds on the front, place it on my kitchen desk.  A pen.  A white page.  Hummingbirds, with wings so fast they’re just a blur.  Sipping nectar, eating up to 12 times their own body weight each day because they use up so much energy just flying.  Daily nectar for daily needs.  That’s what my “December blitz” joy list will be.

1. Hummingbirds 
2. A pen filled with ink
3. 31 days to give thanks
4. This breath of life
5. My two sleeping children
6. That they’re healthy, happy, and holy.
7. That the kingdom of heaven is made of such as these.
8. Fresh white pages waiting for thanks.
9. That thanksgiving prepares the way for God to show us His salvation.
10. For Ann’s life-giving, life-restoring words
11. For words, for language to express thanks.
12. For naming and the power of names.
13. For my husband and his naming of me as his wife.
14. For trials and how they produce perseverance and character.
15. That this world is the only hell we’ll ever know.
16. That after this breath of a life we’ll see God face to face
17. And we’ll know as we are fully known.

In less than 3 minutes, I’m more than halfway to my 33 gifts for today. 

Joy bubbles in the heart.