I once had a health professor who told me that "an attitude of gratitude brings you joy." That phrase stuck in my head and has served me well me all these years. I have found it to be quite true. It is all too easy to want for more or for things to be perfect. When I stop to contemplate how abundant and blessed I am right this very moment though....well, I always just find even more to be thankful for. Big things and little. It is a beautiful snowball affect.
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Ginger, basking in the morning sun.
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On the other side of the coin, when I get to feeling down I have an extremely UNhelpful tendency to snowball in the opposite direction. All I can see are the other things that suck or aren't going well and I end up finding more and more to feel down about. This would be the ugly snowball, I guess. Cousin to the previously mentioned beautiful snowball. Matt caught me doing it this morning, in fact.
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Matt implemented "Fair Food Week" in August--fresh squeezed lemonade, buttery corn on the cob, nachos, curly fries, fresh-dipped corn dogs, soft pretzels with cheese sauce.
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So, this evening, as an exercise in trying to snap back to my sunnier self, I set out to build a gratitude snowball instead. Maybe it can serve as a little snow cave; shelter to tuck into when I need to remind myself that despite uncertainty, animosity, and chaos there is still so much joy and love and beauty to be found.
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A few participants from Hannah's birthday HouseParty earlier this month.
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- I am oh-so-grateful for Matt, my spectacularly well-matched and hardworking partner.
- For Ginger and Johnny-john-john.
- For Megavacations.
- For owning our own house and paying down our mortgage doubletime.
- For the room to accommodate both a puzzle table and a sewing desk.
- I am grateful that I was able to spend so much of the pandemic experience cozy and content at home.
- For hot springs.
- For Pizza Friday.
- For central heat and air conditioning.
- I am grateful for the ongoing health of my family and friends, including my dad's recent 6 month cancer check-up.
- I am grateful for my super awesome parents and sisters
- For my large-yet-still-close extended family.
- For the happy childhood I so fondly look back on.
- For dancing.
- For music that inspires and soothes me.
- For the musicians who've been streaming live shows to shut-in audiences.
- I am thankful for a garden overflowing with bounty.
- For being a good cook.
- I am thankful for digital Houseparties full of laughs and games with my crew.
- For how awesome 2019 was!
- I am grateful for bees and their busy work.
- For scientists and their busy work.
- I am thankful for instant iced beverages on command.
- And pockets.
- And sunshine.
- For electricity.
- I am grateful for The Gorge and Red Rocks.
- For friendship.
- I am grateful for Phil Lesh.
- For Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- For books and reading.
- I am thankful for my bicycle commute.
- I am thankful for libraries.
- I am grateful for nurses, social workers, farmers, pilots, police officers, teachers, and all sorts of people who are able to perform jobs I can't even begin to imagine.
- For flowers.
- For food security.
- For lefse and food traditions.
- For health insurance and matched retirement plans.
- I am grateful for public swimming pools.
- I am oh-so-grateful for national parks and public lands.
- For John Muir.
- I am thankful for the Internet Archive.
- For tapers and share-friendly bands.
- I am grateful for cozy sweaters.
- I am grateful for my guitar.
- For my library of board games.
- For the stars and the moon.
- For crickets singing at night.
- For birds singing by day.
- I am grateful to experience the changing seasons.
- I am grateful to have traveled so widely.
- I am grateful for my truly transformative college experience.
- For the smell of rain.
- For beer.
- For bread.
- I am thankful for that Faulkner book that taught me it was "okay" to just make up my own compound words, if I felt like it.
- For the things Matt "saves" for me from Facebook.
- For good maps.
- And GPS.
- For the culinary gamechangers that are my Soda Stream, InstantPot, and Vitamix.
- I am thankful for being the recipient of Val's bead work.
- I am grateful for Watercourse Foods, Voodoo Doughnuts, Veera's, Lotus Deli, Fancy Sushi, Green New American, Nami, Masla, Cutting Board Cafe, and Siam Thai.
- For what an easy time it is to be a vegan.
- I am grateful for sleeping under the stars.
- For Railroad Earth.
- I am thankful for my red hair.
- And being fairly average sized and well-proportioned so I can be comfortable anywhere and have an easy time with secondhand clothes, shoes, etc.
- I am grateful for hammocks
- And kites, especially kites on the beach.
- I am grateful for compost.
- I am grateful for redwoods, sequoias, red cedars and all the big trees.
- I am grateful for Josh's songs.
- And Xavier Rudd's, too.
- I am oh-so-grateful for my old-school Bob Lob Law crew.
- I am grateful for our heated mattress pad.
- I am thankful for earthworms.
- I am thankful for garlic.
- For brunch with the O'Malleys and Co.
- And salt.
- And refrigeration.
- And baby Jessie.
- I am grateful that my arthritis pain is overall well managed.
- I am grateful that I'm not one of the millions of unemployed folks.
- And that I get two weeks off at Christmas every year.
- For grass.
- For blue skies.
- For Dwayne Johnson movies.
- For music festivals.
- I am grateful for forests.
- I am grateful for prairies.
- I am grateful for August meteor showers with Hannah.
- I am thankful for long, hot baths.
- For clothes swaps.
- For artists.
- For the ditch that irrigates our garden.
- For the Yellowstone River.
- I am grateful for the kindness of strangers.
- For the lush green of spring.
- For Ryan's homebrew and how well he knows what I'll like.
- I am grateful for satire.
- For forest service cabins and campgrounds.
- For AirBnB.
- For endless streaming free internet music.
- For Harry Potter.
- For the Rolling Stones.
- For tofu.
- I am thankful for photography.
- And washing machines.
- For cayenne pepper hot sauce.
- For philosophers and thinkers.
- For the people who find the things I have to say worthy of their reading time.
- I am grateful for Clinton Fearon.
- For having an "emergency fund" saved away.
- I am thankful for "real mail."
- For stunning sunsets and sunrises.
- I am thankful for bicycle helmets and seat belts.
- For fermentation.
- For band-aids and toilet paper.
- For the softness of candlelight.
- For the warmth of a campfire.
- I am grateful for birds.
- I am thankful for yoga.
- For the USPS.
- I am grateful for free fruit trees.
- For Alli's 4th of July reunion.
- I am grateful I don't have to wear a mask when I'm in my office.
- I am thankful for caffeine, the most universally beloved drug.
- For mushrooms.
- I am grateful for living in Montana.
- I am grateful for...
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I upped my bathtub game. Lavender bubble bath.
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...that's quite a list of things to be thankful for...
ReplyDelete~Have a lovely day!
That sure is one beautiful and uplifting gratitude list and I will enjoy reading your post links in between tackiling a huge list of to-do's xx
ReplyDelete