My sisters and I will be gathering for our first Thanksgiving as orphaned adult children. We will resume the tradition started by our father: When we sit down to the blessed feast steaming before us, we will go around the table, each of us sharing what, during this last year, we are Thankful for in our Lives.

For me, this year, I am Grateful for the Gift of Adversity. Amidst a year of unexpected turns in my Life, I created this mantra of sorts to propel me through with Gratitude, and I share it with you here:

Thank you, Life, for the Gift of Adversity….

For, in You, I find greater Strength, Wisdom

and Resilience.

These days, I am practicing GrateFULLness. How does that differ from "Gratitude" and "Grateful"? It means being thankful for what I like to call/"label" those "less than optimal" Life experiences. Being in a state of GrateFULLness even amid turbulence. Which, in the end, as I choose to see it, is a part of the Perfectly Divine, the Perfectly Imperfect. IGBOK. And, it's All Good. I hope you know this….

May your Holiday be blessed. May you find GrateFULLness in your heart to cherish the day, your loved ones, all that is important to you, that with which you are blessed–great and small–and even the Adversity that Life sometimes serves up alongside.

Namaste.

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About the above painting: This gorgeous oil on canvas, entitled "View From the Mountain," is by Nashville artist Susan Goshgarian McGrew. Her work can be found at The Renaissance Center's new Artisan Market. This is the "Journey with Grace, Autism, Art & All the Rest of Life "ArtsFriday" post a day early as a holiday gift you, my readers. And, there is an autism connection here. Love how that works time and again. (Dr. Susan McGrew was a pediatrician specializing in autism for many years at Vanderbilt Medical University.) And, I took some liberties with the spelling of Ken Wheaton's "Grateful" here.