Sufficient for my needs!

I love this time of year. I love the smell and feel of the air. I love the colors of the trees as they change and lose their leaves. I love that my Birthday falls just 2 days away from the first day of fall. But mostly I love the time that I take to reflect on the things that I have been so blessed with in my life.
I am asked over and over, “What do you want for your Birthday?”, and really, it’s hard for me to think about what I “want”. I think we can get so hung up on the things that we want, or that we don’t have, that we make it hard to see the blessing right in front of us. I have always been told that as long as I am doing what is right, I will be blessed sufficient for my needs. It isn’t that I will have sufficient for my wants, or sufficient for the things that are nice, or that I really like. It means that I will always have the things that I need.
When I think of needs, I think of the basics; food, clothing and shelter. As I reflect on my life, I can see that I have always had sufficient for my needs, and then some.
I have always had food to eat. I am pretty sure that everything I have consumed in my life time has not been my favorite, cooked just right or had a dessert to go with it, but I have always had food.
I have always had clothing. A lot of my clothes have many, many years of wear and hopefully many more years of wear still left in them. I don’t usually have the trendiest clothes, they usually have a hole or a stain some where, but for the most part I try to look decent and I have never had a time where I had nothing to wear. (Although I am pretty sure I have said that before.)
I have always had shelter. I love my little house. It provides protection from the elements, warmth in the winter and refuge from the summer heat. It is big enough for my whole family, and welcoming to family and friends. There are times that I wish I had something more “grand” to drive up to when I get home, or a larger kitchen for my kids to gather in, but that would not make my house any more safe, warm or secure to be in. What I have is truly sufficient for our needs.
I am so grateful for my home, my family and my amazing friends that help to give me perspective in my life. I think if I can just remember how blessed I am, I will always be happy. I think if we all really reflect on our lives we can see that we have the things we truly need and that all the extras are not always adding to our lives, but can in a way, actually be taking away from what will make us truly happy.
There is so much “stuff” in this world. I have a good friend that helps me remember that if I am spending all my time taking care of my “stuff”, than I won’t have any time to take care of the things that are really important to me, like my family!
I had a wonderful Birthday yesterday, filled with family and amazing friends that showered me with love and gifts. It is times like this that I can truly see how blessed I am. It is not the gifts that mean so much to me. That is just “stuff”. It is the time they take out of their lives to spend with me, the thoughts that they share and the love that is felt when we are together. Don’t get me wrong, the gifts are great, but to me, they are just extras. So if you ask what I want for my Birthday this year, it is you, because as far as things, I have sufficient for my needs.