Thankful Thursday - like it or not!

Thankful Thursday.

I didn't FEEL very thankful this morning. To be honest, fear and dread were rather near to the surface. I felt more nervous than thankful, but decided that this was a good opportunity to go ahead and BE thankful with or without the feelings. Fairly early in the day we got word that our little Tito was done with surgery and doing well. That helped me FEEL more thankful.

And then came the scary mountain roads. The ones that the guidebooks warn about in bright red italics. Oh, dear. The ones that start all kinds of thoughts bubbling in my head. Unhealthy thoughts. Negative thoughts. Out-of-control thoughts. What in the world are we doing? We must be crazy and irresponsible to attempt this! It was hard to FEEL thankful.

I remind myself that I have a choice. I can choose to "take every thought captive" to maintain sanity and a somewhat positive outlook. At least I can try. I choose to try - with varying degrees of success. I try to distract myself with studying the map or reading something unrelated or writing in my journal, but of course, I can't concentrate on anything else but this road. This stretch of highway. I avert my eyes - down to what I'm reading or writing. Or I try looking above the drop-off to the beautiful view across the valley.

Mile after mile. Nice level stretches when I could feel thankful. Long, steep downgrades when I had to discipline myself to stay steady and to breathe deeply. We stopped a time or three - just to stretch our legs and breathe a little more deeply and even to lay down and relax for a few minutes. And then we drove a few more miles.

Slowly we crept closer to our goal for the day. One more long windy stretch out of the way. One more 7% downgrade survived. And finally we made it. We pulled into the campground and I felt thankful. They honored our credit card* and I felt even more thankful. But I have to admit that the thing that might make me feel the most thankful is to have good internet. Wahoo!!!

...AND I am thankful for a gentle and patient man who gives me space to deal with my fears and who is such a good driver.

...

*Credit cards in foreign countries: It is wise to contact your bank and credit card companies to notify them of your upcoming travel - and even then you may have to call them to work out glitches.