December 14 – Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it? (Author: Victoria Klein)
My Response:
Earlier this year, I watched an episode or two of Faces of America on PBS, which traced the genealogy of twelve famous Americans. Now, whenever I come across old family photos and peer into the faces of my grandparents and great-grandparents, I feel an extending sense of appreciation that they chose to leave their country of birth for Hawaii.
That four different people could somehow find their way to each other in these islands, marry, and spawn (definition- to produce young, especially in large numbers) and allow me the life I have, is just....stunning. I appreciate the people who gave me life and I appreciate the place of my birth. I could not have been the same person, if I were born in a different land.
I'm not sure yet, how to do more than to utter my feelings of appreciation. But I do know, that there is more.
Original photo: Jerrie Stafford
