Chocolate Milk and One Thousand Gifts

A few weeks ago, I started putting chocolate milk in my morning coffee. I sit with a cup of coffee on our yellow couch while I read and reflect on daily devotionals. It’s one of my favorite times of the day – silence, softness, warmth, stillness.

When the chocolate milk is warmed up and added to my Half-Caff blend (from the wonderful folks at Grounds for Change), it creates a kind of “aaahhhh” feeling in me. I wonder if this might be the way babies feel when they are drinking their mother’s milk: warmed, comforted, savoring nourishment and peace.

This reminds me that my husband’s family used to make chocolate milk a once-a-week treat. On Saturday evenings, they had a dinner tradition: the meal was always hamburgers with the trimmings, potato chips on the side and chocolate milk to drink. It was a special occasion, to them, and one my husband recalls with happiness.

Is there anything as simple as chocolate milk for which you are thankful?

Have you heard of “One Thousand Gifts?”

Author Ann Voskamp has written a book, started a movement, and created a video which holds what I believe to be one of the keys to happiness and abundant living.

I have seen Ann’s logo on other blogs, but had never investigated her blog. I just started reading her book – could hardly put down the excerpt, and it’s now in my queue at our local public library.

This week, a dear friend sent me this link to one of Ann’s postings, and it hit home in a deep way. Maybe it’s because I have been hearing and thinking about “bucket lists” lately; maybe it’s because  a nurse I know has been called to Haiti to serve. More likely, it’s because I have been deeply listening to hear my own calling – my own next step on this path – and Ann’s posting made me stop. It made me stop and listen in a different way. Several of the posts on her blog have done that.

I think Ann Voskamp is on to something real, something radical, something simple yet vital. So the first gift for which I’m giving thanks today is

chocolate milk.