It comes around annually, and I am always excited to celebrate it. It happens to you also. Yes, it is my birthday today. Just being here – alive and relatively well is great cause for celebration. The birthday is a wonderful reminder to celebrate and give thanks. 

What will we do? I don’t know yet. I know that I will have lunch with a special friend and go out for dinner in the evening. Maybe my sisters will join the fun. I will hear from my children and there will probably be some flowers and gifts. (I am blessed with a loving and generous family.)  

What we do doesn’t matter, I will have Big Gratitude all day long. This is one of those times when my heart swells to capacity and I have no alternative but to shout out my thanks for these amazing blessings.  Even the ones that I cannot identify. God has always been on my side. And I am very grateful. 

Even during the times of sadness and tragedy, the times when I turned away in anger or embarrassment, the times when I made bad decisions and went off on my own, God has always been at my side. And I am grateful. 

I am sure that left to my own devices, I would not be here celebrating a birthday with Big Gratitude for all the people in my life; all that has happened in my life; and all the surprises that are to come. And I am grateful. 

In 1939, Mary Stevenson wrote the original Footprints Prayer. She knew that God loved her unconditionally. Her beautiful poem speaks to us in an illustrative language that we can understand and visualize. I have always identified with the words of this prayer, because I know that God loves me and loves you unconditionally. And I am grateful. 

Terri