Grateful IV

1. For a mother who lets me call and talk to her for large amounts of time everyday of the weekend.

2. For Canadian friends, who throw impromptu Canadian Thanksgiving Dinners.
John and Tamsen are the most glorious hosts. Not only is Tamsen a phenomenal cook, but she is also wonderfully generous. Yes, I got left overs. And yes it made my day. And add to that the fact that John then drove me back to Externship. Those Canadians... good solid people.

3. For recognizing progress.
Yes it is rare for me to not curse growing up, but occasionally I will do something and then realize what progress I have made. I feel pride in those moments where I realize the strides I've made. Of course there are days where I can't see the progress. Which is what makes moments like this so poignant.

4. For the farsees.
A few weeks ago, this guy gave a talk in my ward. He told this story from his mission about asking for directions from a man. The man told him that he needed to go three farsees and then turn right. "Farsee? I'm not familiar with that distance. How far is one farsee?" And the man replied a farsee was as "far as you could see".
The point of the story is that often we don't know the plans that God has in store for us. We can't see the future. But we only need plan for as far as we can see. Nothing more than that is asked of us. Sometimes we can only see 6 months or a year away. But we don't need to plan any farther than we can see.
I often feel nervous that I don't have a future plan for after dental school. There is a certain amount of built in shame, for not having concrete life plans. But right now, the farthest I can see is graduation. So I plan for that point and try not to worry about any further ahead than that. I'm choosing to hope that once I get there I'll be able to see and plan a little further ahead.