Lately, life has looked a little like this: helping people with houses, writing stories about secrets hidden in houses, answering emails, talking real estate, thinking about book covers, keeping up with characters and plot lines, and occasionally walking into a room and forgetting why I went in there in the first place. 

Some days are full. Some are wonderfully ordinary. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I keep finding reasons to be grateful. 

I’m grateful for the opportunity to still be learning and creating. Grateful for the people God continues to place in my path. Grateful for work I enjoy, stories I get to tell, readers who take the time to spend a few hours inside those stories, and the little moments that remind me how much goodness can be tucked into an ordinary day. 

This season of life looks different than I might have imagined years ago. I’m still working in real estate. I’m also writing books, trying new things, and discovering that there really isn’t an expiration date on beginning something new. 

There is something freeing about that. 

We can keep growing.

 We can keep learning.

 We can laugh at ourselves.

 We can change direction.

 We can start the thing we once thought we had waited too long to start. 

And through all of it, we can choose gratitude. 

Not because every day is easy or everything goes according to plan, but because there is almost always something worth noticing: a kind word, a new opportunity, a quiet morning, a conversation with someone you love, an unexpected answer to prayer, or simply the gift of another day. 

I’m learning that gratitude doesn’t have to be reserved for the big milestones. Sometimes it is found in coffee at the kitchen table, a finished chapter, a client who becomes a friend, a good laugh, a beautiful sunset, or finally remembering why you walked into that room. 

For this season of life, I am simply grateful. 

Grateful for where I’ve been.

 Grateful for where I am.

 And trusting God with wherever He leads me next. 

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3