Gratitude day #5
Today I am grateful for the country I live in.
My family has been here since the mid-1700s on every single one of my lines. I have no one that arrived here in the 1800s forward.
I can't imagine what it must have taken to leave their native countries and head to this unknown, unproven land. They came from Scotland and Ireland, England, and Germany, and pretty much nowhere else. In the 1700s they were all living in either Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, or North Carolina.
Kerry and I have had the privilege of visiting all 50 states, and love the beauty and uniqueness that each one has. I particularly like grazing the best foods through each state, while Kerry will study the maps to imagine how the roads and trails came to be.
As Mr. Kerry is working for the Board of Elections today, I am particularly mindful of the right and privilege of being able to vote. Election day was not a happy time in eastern Kentucky when my parents would have voted. It was a time for meanness, threats, and sometimes shootings.
As much as I love our country, I am also saddened by the hate and vitriol that is prevalent on every turn. I have seen terrible things spewed by my FB friends, and entire relationships destroyed.
One of our Church leaders asked us in the past month to pour our hearts out to God and pray for our country and its leaders. Kerry and I have done that in every prayer, and ask those who also believe to join us in that prayer. We are in need of great healing, and the Great Healer is the one who can assist in that happening.
My heart belongs to this country, to my state, right down to the countryside where I live. I am grateful to have been born and raised here.
And, I pray for it. I can't recall a greater time when it has been needed. We must not turn on each other.
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