52. The Christmas Spirit

As cheesy as it may sound, I really love and am thankful for the Christmas Spirit. It's something that really should be present all year round. But, since it generally isn't as strong as it is this time of year, I love to feel it when Christmas comes around. People are more generous and happier.

Tonight our ward held an auction where all of the proceeds are going toward the Sub for Santa program to buy gifts for children. It was a lot of fun. It was amazing to see the generosity there tonight as people bid on the various items. Honestly, was you got into it, it wasn't hard or burdensome to think about how much you would be paying. It's all going toward a good cause. The Christmas Spirit helped out a lot and it made the experience feel pretty good.

Christmas really does bring out the best in people. I love the spirit of this season.

51. Christmas Lights

So, I'm one of those people who believes that Christmas decorations shouldn't go up until December 1st. However, I won't complain if I see them up before that. Anyway, I was walking to my office yesterday after the football game and walked past a bunch of trees on campus that were lit up with Christmas lights and I got really happy. I love Christmas, and I think that Christmas lights can really be quite amazing if they are done right. Also, seeing Christmas lights is one of the easiest ways to be reminded that Christmas is coming up and to help you think about the season and everything involved with it. I love to see Temple Square all lit up with lights this time of year. I haven't actually been there for a few years to check them out, but I love them.

50. My MP3 Player

Okay, before I start off, I think it would have been much more appropriate to wait until this week to write about BYU football. The Cougars beat the Utes 26-23 in overtime. It was so crazy and so tense at the end! I'm so glad I didn't miss out on that game.

Alright, so, my mp3 player. My brother gave me a gift card to Future Shop last Christmas. I used that card to buy my first mp3 player, and I have not regretted it since then. I bought a 4GB Sansa Clip. It's just a tiny little thing, and it has served me well. I filled it up instantly and I have used it extensively since then.

One of the main reasons that I chose this one over other players at the store was that it has a clip on the back so I can clip it to my clothes when I go running, and that has been very handy. I haven't gone to work out at all this semester, but before September I would usually try to go work out a couple of times a week. I'm pretty sure that I've used my mp3 player more while I've been working out and running than in any other circumstance. It has really been helpful, especially when I've been running on the treadmill. Honestly, I don't really like treadmills unless I have music or TV to keep me distracted. If I don't have either of those, I usually only run about half as far as I do with them.

So, I'm not only thankful for the entertainment value of my mp3 player, but I'm also thankful for the health benefits of it as well.

49. Free Football Tickets

Tomorrow is the Holy War in Provo. The University of Utah is coming to play BYU tomorrow and I found out today that I have a ticket. This will be the fourth home game that I've attended this season, and I haven't paid for a single one. I've been fortunate enough to have friends who aren't using tickets and have given them to me. Last year I went to 5 games. I could have gone to 6, but I just didn't want to go to the last game. I have a lot of fun at the games, so I'm happy that I've been able to go. I realize that this one sounds kind of selfish, but I really am grateful for the generosity that has allowed me to go to the games.

48. Library Book Sales

Happy Thanksgiving...again! So, today is American Thanksgiving. It's been a good day. I slept in, read a bit, worked on a puzzle, then went to dinner at my bishop's place with some other members of the ward. Dinner was so good, and it was fun to spend it with good people.

Anyway, back to today's topic. I learned back in August that the Provo City Library holds book sales from time to time. I think they are selling the books in the library that don't really get checked out very much. Anyway, I've gone a few times and have gotten some great deals on a lot of books. I've been buying books at a much faster rate than I can read them, but luckily it isn't costing me an arm and a leg. For example, at the last sale I was able to buy 35 books (most of them hard covers), in good condition, for $13 dollars. I was pretty excited. So, that means that I'll have plenty to work on when I have time to read. Now, I just hope that the majority of these books are good.

47. Sympathetic Professors

Okay, so, there's one professor in particular that I'm thinking of as I write this, but he's not the only sympathetic professor I have to be grateful for. Anyway, I have a paper due in one of my classes. Actually, the final draft was due today, but here's the story about mine.

So, a while ago the students in my class were paired up to write a research paper together. I'm not a big fan of group projects, but I've come to accept them as a part of life that I will probably never get away from. Anyway, after we got divided up into pairs, my partner got sick. Then, just as he was recovering, I got sick. This put as back about a week on our project. Our professor understood (and with the whole swine flu thing going on, the university has told everyone to be pretty forgiving about illness anyway) and has allowed us to hand things in late. Well, the rough draft was due a week ago, so, it would make sense that ours should be due today. Well, it would have gotten turned in, except that when my partner gave me his portion to add to mine, well, it turned out that we had each written the exact same half of the paper! Talk about frustration. Luckily, however, I talked to our professor about this and we have worked things out to hand the paper in later (especially since it's hard to coordinate writing the rest of the paper with my partner right now since he is out of town). So, I am particularly thankful for a sympathetic professor who isn't requiring me to completely give up my break to finish this paper.

Oh, and Jenn, I realize that you have had to coordinate writing papers over long distances quite a bit for your program. I am not jealous one bit.

46. Thanksgiving Break

Holy cow! I am so thankful for the Thanksgiving break and to not have any classes for the rest of the week. I still have a lot of work that I need to get done, but at least I'm not getting any additional work. I can actually catch up a bit, relax, and get some much needed sleep. Well, I think that pretty well sums it up. Oh, and maybe I'll have some time to do some reading.

45. Heroes

Given the nature of many of the posts on my blog, you might think that this post is talking about my own personal heroes who have helped me throughout my life and who have been great role models for me. Well, you'd be wrong. Don't take that the wrong way. I am very thankful for those people in my life and owe a lot to them. However, tonight I am speaking of Heroes on NBC.

I watch more TV than I should. I don't watch as much right now because I've been very busy this semester, but the percent of my free time that it takes up hasn't really changed. However, there aren't many shows that I'm really into right now. Basically, there are a few sitcoms and Heroes. It really is one of my favorite shows right now. I kind of avoided it when it first started. I'm not really sure why. I must have just thought it looked stupid. Then I went home last Christmas and learned that the first two seasons were at my house. I watched the first season during the break. Then I watched the second season the week I was home in the summer. Then my new roommates moved in this fall and were getting really excited about season 4, so I decided I should catch up on season three so I could watch season four with them. I found the episodes online and watched it in a week as I was doing homework and grading assignments. And now I haven't missed an episode this season.

Anyway, it's been fun to be able to watch each episode and talk about it with my roommates and speculate about what's going to happen next. One of my roommates is convinced that the deaf lady should die. I don't know why. I think she's kind of cool. Anyway, we usually have to watch it the next day because we have FHE at the same time it comes on Monday nights. Today I got a text informing me that FHE was cancelled and my first thought was "sweet, we can watch Heroes tonight!" (Don't worry, I'm still thankful for FHE. I'm not backing out of what I said last week)

44. Puzzles

So, my roommates and I suddenly got into doing puzzles over the summer. We did quite a few and we got to where we could do them fairly quickly. It seemed like there was alwasy somebody working on whichever puzzle was out at the time. After we finished them, one of my roommates worked on framing a couple of the puzzles we finished. It's taken a few months, but they are finished now and are hanging on our wall. They are close to the only decor we have in our living rooom, so it's nice to have them up.

I started another puzzle earlier in the semester, but I just didn't have much time to work on it, and it got pushed to the side and forgotten about. It sat there for a few months, untouched. I've recently started working on it again and have remembered how much I like working on puzzles. I'm pretty slow and methodical about it, but it's a good way for me to escape and clear my mind for a while. I need to be careful, though. During the summer I would stay up far too late after midnight because I kept wanting to finish the next little section. I can't do that right now without suffering some severe consequences due to a lack of sleep and lack of working on other, more pressing assignments.

43. BYU Football

Okay, so, this is something that's been on my list for a while. I was going to write about it a few weeks ago, but that just happened to be the same day that BYU lost to TCU at home. After that, I didn't really want to go tackle the subject. Anyway, I went to the Air Force vs. BYU game today and met up with one of my old roommates who is one of the biggest BYU fans I know. While there, he told me that he's been waiting for me to write about BYU football. So, I decided it was about time.

Honestly, I really like watching BYU football. I'm surprised by how much I like it. I like college football in general, but I've had to kind of grow into it. I've always been able to sit down and watch a BYU game, but it hasn't been until recently that I could watch other colleges play. I just didn't really care enough to watch.

I'm happy to say that BYU has had a fairly good team for the majority of the time I've been here. They aren't the best out there, but they're good. I can always be proud of them, despite a few embarrassing slip ups from time to time. And it's always fun to either get together with people to watch a game on TV, or to go to the game and meet up with friends there that I don't see much other than at the games.

42. Free Refills

I am thankful for free refills. I'm sure they do me more harm than good, but the idea of endless pop, juice, lemonade, and the like makes me happy.

As you can probably guess, I went out to eat somewhere tonight where I got free refills. It was one of my roommates' birthday today, and we all went out to dinner to celebrate tonight. I was trying to decide what I wanted to drink when another one of my roommates asked the server what drinks come with free refills. Apparently the flavored lemonades do, and that made up my mind for me right there. Later on, both of us got excited when we learned that we could switch flavors with each refill. We both decided that the mango lemonade was the best. It was pretty darn good

41. My Phone

Just like 99% of the people I know, I own a cell phone. I've only had one for a relatively short amount of time (1 year, 5 months). Before that time, people just couldn't believe that I got by without one. Well, I got by just fine. But, now I'm happy I have one. Sure, it's been really convenient to have it and to know I can call somebody anytime I need to and from most anywhere, but it really has turned into a necessity for me now.

Before moving to my new apartment, any apartment I lived in before had phone service. We had to provide our own phone, but we knew it would work when we plugged it in. That was not the case when I moved into my new place. There was no phone, then went I started asking around about our phone number, I learned that the complex had decided to stop providing service in exchange for a few dollars of rent. Well, this was when I was really happy to have my phone. I doubt many people other than me even noticed this. This wouldn't have worked a few years ago. When I first got off my mission, only 2 of the 6 guys in my apartment had a cell phone. In fact, this was still true a year and a half after getting home. That was only 2 and a half years ago!

Anyway, I'm thankful that I finally caught up with everybody else around me and own my own phone now.

40. Institute

Honestly, I'm really thankful that I am able to go to institute this semester. This has been kind of a crazy semester and it's really nice to have institute in the middle of the week to kind of bring things back into perspective and to provide a little bit of a break.

I'll admit, I don't always pay as much attention as I should. But, when I do, I always learn something great. And, like I said, it helps to keep me focused on the gospel and ways in which I can improve myself and become more Christlike. And, trust me, I need to keep improving. Seriously, though, I normally have a hard enough time remembering those things throughout the week anyway, let alone when I'm as busy like I have been this semester. So, it's been really nice to have institute there to help me along the way.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, institute provides a bit of a break as well. I take other breaks as well, but there's always this nagging feeling of "I should be working on something." With institute, however, it doesn't feel like that. It's a break that I don't feel bad taking. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the whole coming unto Christ thing. I don't think you can really feel guilty doing that.

So, here's something that I thought was cool about institute tonight. I was already planning on writing about institute tonight before actually attending tonight. Then, when I showed up to institute, it turned out that the lesson tonight was on humility and gratitude. Then, at the end of the lesson, the instructor played one of the recent "Mormon Messages" videos. I thought it was pretty cool and felt it appropriate to share here. Enjoy.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

39. Tim Hortons

Alright, so, here's another post dealing with donuts. This still counts as a completely independent thing for which I am grateful, though, because neither this post nor the previous donut post are specifically about donuts. Donut Day and Tim Hortons are two completely different topics. If you don't believe me, well, too bad.

Okay, so, I can't lie. One of the reasons that I am thankful for Tim Hortons is that I love the donuts. That's not the only reason, however. This might sound kind of silly, but going to Tim Hortons is kind of a special experience for me when I am home. It's just one of those things that helps me connect with being home and being in Canada. I mean, it's not as if it's to my life and identity hinge on having a Tim Hortons donut, but I think it's safe to say that this donut shop is truly part of Canadian culture. I once read that Canada has more donut shops per capita than any other country in the world. I guess if your just talking about donuts, the US is Canada's only real competition. I don't think the donut is extremely popular outside of North America.

Anyway, Tim Hortons is great. I go there every time I'm home, and I get excited every time I pull into the parking lot.

38. FHE

Family Home Evening has always been nice. When I was at home, it was nice to spend some time together with the family. Of course, I had to go through a phase where I wasn't the most enthusiastic about it, but I don't think that phase was all that bad with me. And, I was the only kid at home for a good portion of my teenage years, so family home evening worked a little different then anyway. When I was younger I think I probably liked it mostly because I knew there would be a treat at the end. Anyway, I enjoyed family home evening.

I still have FHE at college, but it definitely works a little differently here. I mean, we still have a spiritual thought and an activity like usual, but it's all college students. It's a nice way to start out the week, and it's fun to get together with other people in the ward, especially since I'm hiding out in my office for a good portion of the week. FHE has been a good thing in my life.

37. Nice Notes

So, here at BYU it's a common occurrence for the ward to get together Sunday evening and hold ward prayer. Afterwards, there are usually some kind of snack and people mingle and write "nice notes" to each other. Sometimes they are silly and sometimes they are serious, but they are always fun to get. I don't get them every week, but I'm happy when I do get them. They can make me laugh and feel good about myself. Sometimes they are exactly what I need.

I can think of one note in particular that helped me out a lot. I was having a pretty crummy day. I got a note that night that meant a lot to me and helped to turn things around. The person who wrote it probabably didn't realize what kind of an impact it would have on me. It was a pretty simple note. But, like I said, it was exactly what I needed and really helped me out.

36. My Office

I am very thankful to have an office at school. Okay, so, it's really more of a cubicle inside an office that I share with some other grad students, but it's close enough (that makes me think of the episode of "The Office" when Dwight is trying to call the conference room his office).

It works out really well for me to have my desk in here. I can't focus enough in my apartment to do homework, and I just don't like to go to the library, but I need a place to go where I won't get too distracted. My office is perfect for that. It has been especially nice today. I've had a lot of work to catch up on lately, and I've been in my office pretty much all day. It's not that I enjoy being in here so much that I don't want to leave, I just have a lot to get done and it's been nice to have a place to get it done. I can still get distracted in here (as can be seen in the picture), but it happens to a much smaller level than it would at home.

Also, it feels good to tell people that I'm going to my office. Every other grad student I know has an office as well, so I'm not exactly a special case in that regard, but it still feels good to say that. I guess that's just one of the little perks of deciding to stay in school.

35. A Good Book

Okay, so, I'm not referring to any book in particular here. It's just a lot of fun to be able to get into a good book. I really don't get to read for fun as much as I would like. Actually, I don't really do it much at all during the school year, especially this semester. During the eight month stretch from September through April, I'll read more during the Christmas break than the other 7.5 months altogether.

There's something really satisfying about reading a good book. First of all, it's entertaining. When I get into a good book, there isn't much else that I want to do. I can sit for hours reading just to find out what happens next, and next, and next. Second of all, it feels a lot better than sitting for hours and watching TV, or playing video games, or just sitting there. Then, when you finish the book, it feels good to look back at it and think "hey, I read all of that." That feels particularly good when it's a nice thick book. There really isn't much better than a good book.

34. Mathcad

Alright, so, here's some nerdiness coming out tonight. Mathcad is a program that I use a lot at school. It's a math program that we use in my engineering classes a lot. It's basically a really powerful calculator, with a lot more capabilities than an actual calculator has. I pretty much use it every day, and it makes solving certain problems a lot easier than they would be without it. My professors talk about solving these kinds of problems through more tedious means when they were in school, and I'm glad I don't have to do that. Mathcad can be very picky and tedious itself sometimes (okay, hardly a day goes by when I don't hear somebody complain about it), but if you don't need to debug anything, it really is a pretty slick tool to use. So, I'm thankful that I have this tool available to me.

33. Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. On this day, 91 years ago, the first world war came to an end. Now it is a day in which we commemorate the lives and sacrifices of all who have fought in order to preserve life and freedom. I feel immense gratitude toward all who have fought and I am grateful for all the rights and freedoms that I get to experience because of their sacrifice.

Remembrance Day has always been a special day. I will always remember attending the various Remembrance Day programs at school where we would take time to walk to the cenotaph in the middle of town and observe a moment of silence. Down here at school (where it's Veterans Day instead of Remembrance Day) it's harder to remember to take some time to reflect on these individuals and their sacrifice because we don't get the day off, and there really isn't much talk of Veterans Day in the days leading up to it. The Canadian Club down here usually puts on a little bit of a program, and that's always been nice to go to. This year, however, I didn't get to because I had an in-class test at 11:00. I do, however, have a poppy that I have been wearing today. Sometimes I feel a little weird walking around with it on because very few other people have one, but I think I would feel even more weird not wearing it. And, if anyone asks about it, I have a perfectly good explanation for them.

When my parents came to France at the end of my mission, we took some time to tour around and visit some sites. One of the sites we visited was Vimy Ridge, the location a WWI battle that holds particular significance for Canada. It was a very special experience to visit this site. There was such a feeling of reverence there. As we were walking around some of the cemeteries there, it was an unreal experience for me as I saw that the majority of the graves were for young men between the ages of 18 and 21. I was 21 at the time and could not imagine myself fighting in a war like that. It really brought a lot of the significance of the situation home to me. I am so thankful for their sacrifice, and thankful that I have not had to make the same sacrifice.

32. Temples

I am thankful for temples. I've been trying to figure out how to actually write about this and get my point across, but I'm having a hard time. So, forgive me if this post seems a little disjointed. Temples are really special to me.

Temples are amazing buildings. They are absolutely beautiful, and so much special stuff happens inside them. I am thankful for all of the experiences that I have had inside temples. They have been some of the most special moments of my life.

The majority of my family was just in Florida recently. They were there to see my youngest nephew be sealed to my sister and her husband. I wasn't able to be there, but I am so happy for my sister and her family. I've talked about how much my family means to me, and I am thankful that through temple ordinances we can all be together forever.

I feel like there is so much that I want to say, but I just don't know how to say it. Basically, temples are great. So many blessings are available through temple ordinances and worship.

31. My Computer

I have been very thankful to have my computer over the past few years. I bought it back in 2005 during my first semester of college after my mission. It's the first computer I have owned. It has been an extremely useful tool and has held up pretty well over the years. I've thought a lot recently about getting a new computer, but have opted out of it. I could get a better computer for half of what this one cost me in 2005, but it's not a necessary expense yet. This computer is still going strong. It did start going crazy on me a few weeks ago. I was afraid it was going to completely go out on me, but all I had to do was reformat it. It runs beautifully again.

I'm able to do a lot with my computer. Obviously, if you're reading this, you know what a computer can do and I don't need to go into all the details. But, it's been nice to have it around for me to do my homework on, to keep in contact with family and friends, and to have a lot of fun with. It really is amazing that technology on this level is so readily available to so many people.

30. The Internet

I'm thankful for the internet for a lot of reasons. It makes a lot of things a whole lot more convenient. The main reason that I am thankful for the internet is that it makes communication so much faster. Of course, it's not the only way of speedy communication. For a conversation, it doesn't really get any faster than the phone. But the internet allows you to communicate with so much more than just words. I'm mostly thinking about this today because of a brief conversation I had with my sister where we talked a little bit about the rest of our family being in Florida last week. I haven't actually seen anybody who was there, but I've already been able to see pictures of the trip and get a pretty good idea of how good of a time they had out there. I've also talked with my mom about it, but because of the pictures and messages I've seen online I have a much better idea of what really happened. Anyway, I could keep rambling and not actually add much, so I should just wrap it up. I'm thankful for the internet and the communication opportunities it provides.

29. A Working Drain

So, this one is pretty simple. For the last couple of weeks, the drain in our shower has been draining slower and slower. At first it wasn't much of a problem. There would just be a little bit of water in the tub when you finished showering, but it would drain out pretty quickly. Then, more water started building up. Then it finally got to the point where it wouldn't drain anymore. It got pretty nasty. We poured Drano down there a few times and that would help temporarily, but then it would back up again. I'm not sure what the actual problem was, but some plumbers had to come and replace some stuff. Anyway, the drain works great now and the bottom of the tub is clean. It's very nice.

28. Hockey

Yes, I am Canadian and I like hockey. I didn't always like hockey, however. When I was younger I used to get annoyed when Hockey Night in Canada would come on and chew up an entire Saturday evening of programming. However, sometime around grade 9 or 10 I decided to make a change. I started watching hockey and started to enjoy it. Now, I'm a big fan. I don't really get to watch very much, but I enjoy it when I do.

The big reason I'm thankful for hockey these days is for the identity it provides. It's nice to have something down here that makes me feel Canadian. It's happened on more than one occasion where somebody will find me watching a game or checking stats online and they'll make the comment "yep, you sure are Canadian." Sometimes it's hard to put into words what the differences between Canada and the U.S. are, but they exist and enough of them exist that it feels good when there is something that brings you back home.

27. Medicine

Okay, so I recognize the irony of writing about medicine just a few weeks after talking about how I'm thankful for my good health, but I'm doing it anyway.

Despite my generally good health, I came down with the flu last night. I'm not really surprised that I did. A lot of people around me have been getting sick, and I haven't been getting as much sleep lately and I should be, so I guess it was bound to happen. It was a pretty mild flu, and I think I'm already pretty much over it. I'm probably not 100% yet, but I'm sure feeling a lot better than I did last night and this morning.

Anyway, back to medicine. I was feeling pretty crummy this morning and afternoon. I had a fever and a headache and decided I needed to stay home from school. Then, after consulting with my mom for a little bit, I took some Advil. All it took was one. Within an hour my fever was gone and my head didn't hurt anymore and I got some good rest. That was about 6 hours ago now, so I'm pretty sure that the medicine has worn off and I really am feeling better.

So, that last paragraph sounded a lot like a commercial for Advil. Basically, my point is that I'm thankful for the medicines that we do have these days and how effective they can be. Even though my body can usually take care of itself pretty well, I'm thankful for the help that is available when it needs it.

26. Awkward Moments

Er, this is kind of awkward. Okay, that was lame. Anyway, I really am thankful for awkward moments. I'm thankful for the awkward moments that I experience, the awkward moments that I witness, and the awkward moments I hear about.

Why am I thankful for awkward moments? Because they provide great stories for later on, as long as you can laugh at yourself. And, well, I tend to always have a story to tell. I had a good friend of mine tell me once that she loves my awkward moments. I don't know if there's something unique about mine, or if I just had a lot to tell about, but she liked them. And me and my roommates have had a lot of fun sharing our experiences with each other. And, obviously, a lot of these awkward stories have something to do with girls. I guess that means that girls are just awkward. Heh heh, just kidding.

I'm also very thankful for potential awkward moments that are quickly extinguished. I had one of those experiences tonight. I have a friend that I've been getting to know over the semester. We've had a lot of fun whenever we've talked or been somewhere together. So, I decided to ask her out tonight. Well, I guess we hadn't talked enough for me to learn that she has a boyfriend. Awkward! Luckily, though, I was able to play off the situation fairly well and we were able to keep joking around and have a good time. At least, I know it wasn't awkward for me after that, I hope it wasn't awkward for her. I doubt it was.

25. Miracles

This kind of ties in with my post from yesterday, but it does stand all on its own. Actually, it was my mom's comment on yesterday's post that prompted today's topic. Also, on that note, there's something on my sister's facebook page that I love. Under her profile picture it simply says "I believe in miracles." This makes me smile every time I see it.

I have been able to witness a lot of miracles in my life. some have affected me directly, some have not. I'm not going to go into details here about those experiences, but I just wanted to be sure to express that I believe in miracles, I am thankful that they occur, and I'm thankful for the miracles I have seen in my life.

24. Prayer

Prayer is a wonderful thing. I'm not really sure how to express my feelings about prayer, or how to really get my point across, but I'll try.

If I'm not careful, my prayers can simply become a part of my routine. When this happens, it feels like I'm just going through the motions. I always know that it's important, but sometimes I don't put in the effort I should. It's a completely different story, however, when I really do put my mind and my heart into it.

While special occasions and difficult periods do a really good job of getting me back into this mode, it's not required, which is a good thing. Prayer is supposed to always be something special. My prayers allow me to communicate with God. That in and of itself is something amazing. Prayer can provide comfort and reassurance. Prayer allows you to work out problems with help from God. Prayer allows you to express thanks for anything and everything. Prayer can make you happy. Prayer can open the doors for receiving guidance. Prayer does a lot of things.

One of my favorite stories describing the power of prayer comes from my mission. It's actually not my experience. It's something that one of my zone leaders told us. It's not a story relating huge, miraculous events and phenomenal answers to prayer. It's simple. He explained to us that he missed being home with his family, but that prayer helped him out with this. He said that the moments that he was on his knees praying were the moments that he most felt like he was home. I always thought that was really cool.

Prayer is good. Prayer has helped me innumerable times in my life and I am thankful for all the blessings that I have received through my prayers, whether they be physical, spiritual, or emotional.

23. Trials

Okay, so, I'm pretty sure that most of the people reading this will understand what I'm getting at with this. But, just in case somebody doesn't, I should explain that it's more the lessons that I learn from my trials that I'm thankful for rather than the trial itself. Trials in and of themselves are not fun. They can be hard to get through. They can really do a number on a person. However, the lessons that can be learned from these trials can be wonderful.

I realize that my life has actually been fairly easy. I definitely know people who have gone through much greater trials than I have, but I am thankful for what I have learned from the few I have gone through. Sometimes I forget these lessons fairly quickly and I need to learn them all over again. Sometimes it surprises me how often I need to relearn a lesson. In any case, I am thankful every time that I do learn a lesson. These lessons help me to be a more productive, happy, spiritual person.