I'm in the kitchen looking at the wicker basket overflowing with envelopes; with stray papers and cards sticking out every which way. 

 This basket is one of the places I store the mail and more.  "Store" is a responsible word, sometimes the more honest word is dismiss.  We get mail everyday.  To add to the unending pile, the kids come home with homework and notes outlining events. 

I'm not very organized so I take joy in throwing some mail, like flyers away immediately so that I don't have to deal with it.  Other papers, like the completed cut-and-paste short vowel page and the invitation to play YMCA basketball are thrown away secretly when Rylie isn't looking. 

The abundance is more than I can bear.

Still there are invitations that sit in that basket. I looked just yesterday and noticed an event that had passed.  I had completely forgotten about it.

I skim the basket occasionally to check for urgent papers that need to be signed and for upcoming events.  The items in that basket get deserved attention when I sit in the floor and go through the contents.  I pick up each paper and organize to the best of my ability.

I throw away passed opportunities like the Bath and Body Works coupon whose expiration date has come and gone.

I have a keep pile; like the birth announcement sent by our friends who are adopting a sweet baby girl and the handwritten note to me from Hallie.

Though I take the papers out of the basket....

 my basket is NEVER really empty.

 I have one pile that goes back into the basket like those invitations I don't want to miss.  Important contact information goes back in too.

I haven't been vigilant in this season of Thanksgiving.  I've been thankful, but my thankfulness quite humorously resembles the basket tucked in the corner of my kitchen.

There is a never-to-end list of things to be thankful for.  So great is the abundance that some things are sadly dismissed like the cut-and-paste worksheets Rylie labors over. 

 Do I take time to be thankful for the things which come day after day? 

 Am I thankful for sweet rest that comes every night?  Am I thankful for breath?

Like the mail that is discarded without opening, what opportunities do I miss?  Did I stop to really notice that hug I got Sunday night at church; the hug that held dear meaning?  There are birds singing and wind chimes outdoors tuning in to God's glory.  Am I tuning in or am I missing out?

I've discovered my "thankful" basket is too small to fit all which belongs in it. I realize that there are thankful things I've neglected to put in. Maybe I need to tend to it with much greater frequency.

God thank you that my basket is never empty. The abundance is more than I can bear. I pray that you would enlarge my heart and open my eyes so that I might better acknowledge your greatness.  I pray that I would live a life in light of your goodness. Help my joy to tell of your wonderful deeds.