Thanksgiving thankful list

As Thanksgiving draws near, I think it’s time to post the annual list of things I’m thankful for. Here goes:

• I’m thankful that Keith and Gail Crow are my parents. The older I get and the more I learn about the family situations many people have or had, I am ever so grateful that God blessed me with my parents. I may have thought them stupid or dorky back in the day, but they were and are godly parents who lived out a legacy of faith and loved unconditionally.

• Coffee. . . and chocolate. . . and coffee with chocolate (mochas, yum!)

• Turn signals

• Having enough money to buy gas.

• That NCAA basketball season is gearing up!

• That it’s only a few months until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

• My friends near and far. I’m thankful God gave me so many friends who love so well. You all are constant sources of encouragement and your comments, calls, e-mails, etc., always bring a smile to my face.

• That I haven’t always gotten what I thought was best. I have enough hindsight (about some things) to know that getting what I wanted when I wanted it wouldn’t have been the best thing for me.

• The perfectly turned lyric in a song.

• Perfect moments that you never want to forget. Sitting with a friend on darkened coffeehouse patio on a hot August night when we both knew my grandma was dying and there was nothing to say; driving through the harvest fields of Missouri; peering into the foothills of the Caucus Mountains in Russia; reveling in Montana’s big sky; my dad’s hand on the back of my neck; that moment just before my brother lets go when he “hugs the Mandy.”

• Days off.

• Brisk mornings.

• Clean water and electricity.

• God’s sense of humor.

• Dogs, especially mine.

• That there is a God and as Hagar said in Genesis, He’s the God who really sees me.