Thankful for a path and everything along it

Like many, I’ve been counting a lot of blessings lately. In this season of thanksgiving, I’ve reflected on the good things in my life and I keep coming back to one overall theme.

Life seems to be as it’s supposed to be.

At this point in the path, there is peace. How lucky I must be to look over the years and see that one phase flowed right into the next, leading me to today. Phase by phase, maybe it seems trivial, but I’m thankful for each moment that led me this way and that way.

One of those snapshot sort of memories comes to mind. I’m in an office at Northern Kentucky University, talking to a journalism professor named Pat Moynahan. That was the day I finalized my plan to switch from a public relations major at Eastern Kentucky University to a journalism major at NKU. I remain thankful to Moynahan.

If I’m perfectly honest, I have to say some boy broke my heart leading me to put Richmond in the rearview in dramatic 20-year-old know-it-all fashion. And you know what? I’m thankful for that, too. If not for that move — as childish as it seems now — I might not have what I have.

If not for that change in major, I might not have work I find meaningful. I might not have met my husband, either. We worked together at the student newspaper at NKU.

And if I hadn’t met him, I might never have come to Elizabethtown. He landed a job here first, and soon after I found one, too.

Elizabethtown ended up being where we transformed from late-sleeping college grads to people who write grocery lists and change furnace filters and plan for retirement. Elizabethtown is where we became homeowners and learned to work.

Every bit of that, I’m convinced, was preparation for the next phase — parenthood. Among my greatest blessings are two sweet baby boys, both full of unconditional love.

Today, on Thanksgiving, many of us can count off endless reasons to be thankful. Big things like good health and people who step up to protect others. Silly things we don’t even need like cable television and hot caramel mochas.

But I’m most thankful for the peace I feel. I’m where I’m supposed to be, with the family I was meant to grow.

Sarah Berkshire can be reached at (270) 505-1745 or sberkshire@thenewsenterprise.com.