An Ode to Virginia Woolf

So here we are a little over a week out from Thanksgiving and I still find myself thankful. And I'm thankful for this thankfulness. I write this blog sitting in a room I can finally call my own. It is a room that I have purposed as a study. A room I've always wanted. It is filled with some of my favorite things: a table, a couple of cool old brown velvet wingbacked chairs, books (of course), and lots of little treasures. Among these treasures one will find a jar of seaglass, my marathon medal, a dish filled with small rocks, a personal note from Horton Foote, pictures of old friends, and the guitar of a new, but best friend who trusts my novice hands with a treasure she carried to Africa and back many times to sing the Good News to people she will always love and treasure.

I love this room because it has been a labor of love. It is a small room and I have to be selective about what lives here. It is only my favorite stuff. And oddly enough, there is very little new stuff in here. And I know with complete certainty that whatever new things come into this room, they will come bearing sweet memories. Of special people, places visited in real life or in the world of a beautiful book, and events that meant the most because they were shared.

If you come visit me, I hope you will choose to visit this room. I'd be happy if it became your favorite in my tiny, ever-changing house. It is already mine because it is all mine. It is already a place I go when I need to think quietly, when I need to spend time in prayer, when I need to strum the guitar of a dear friend. When I want to remember, or need to forget. I know I will come here when I am sad. Or lonely. But right now, when I come here, mostly I am thankful.

This is where I found myself on Thanksgiving Day when I wanted nothing more than to be alone for a few minutes to count my blessings, let go of the past, be in the present, and look to the future. I already knew it was the place I could breathe deeply. And if a room could talk I think it would say "There, there..." For this, I am thankful.