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A new season of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has begun. The girls and I watched it faithfully last year and stepped back into that tradition again tonight. Despite the part of me that says, “I won’t get teary. I won’t get sucked into this.” I can’t help it. The gratitude of those who receive the new home AND the gratitude of those who have the opportunity to give it to them is contagious. When the next deserving family finally sees what has been created on their behalf, the past makes sense (at least for a few moments), the present is rich and beyond imagining, and the future looks bright and hopeful. Gratitude overwhelms, over flows, overlooks all else. It’s beautiful.

Ah, that it might be the same for us…

Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Melody Beattie said, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

And every week, Ty Pennington says, “Move that bus!”

I’m addicted: I admit it. And when I turn the TV off at 9:00 each Sunday night I feel compelled to be far more grateful for my home, my daughters, my family, my friends, my health, my job, my life. There is much for which to give thanks; bus, or no.