More Gratitudes
Earlier this year I mentioned my gratitude practice, explained (more or less) how it works (more or less), and shared some of the recent specific things that had appeared on my gratitude list at that time.
Six months later, it’s time for more gratitudes.
At present, I’m grateful for many of the big-picture items I
mentioned in June, plus these specifics, in no particular order:
Enough snow that our well is not frozen and may hold its own when spring arrives
Life in the country, where we marvel at small birds at the feeder and big birds in the sky, and we watch deer grow from fawns to adulthood
People who drive the speed limit (or slower!) in neighbourhoods when they’re driving on ice, even if they’re driving a ginormous truck and think they don’t have to slow down; I doubt that they’re doing it to keep from frightening walkers but that’s a happy side effect
Our local bookstore, Entershine Bookshop, which has become an integral part of the local writing and reading community
Small, independent publishers who specialize in specific types of books and take risks on books that larger publishers can’t afford to
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Colleagues who listen and share their own struggles—there’s no better feeling than “Ohhhhhh, it’s NOT just me”
Colleagues who push themselves creatively and inspire me to do likewise
Colleagues who help me remember that no creative act (book, boycott, protest, public art piece, song, event experience, painting practice) speaks to every person
Opportunities to learn; in this past year I’ve learned online and in person, I’ve learned by listening and by doing, I’ve learned by reading and trying, I’ve learned by holding fast and by letting go, I’ve learned by speaking up and by staying silent, I've learned by reading and writing
People who read (in whatever form), people who think about what they read, and people talk (in whatever form) about what they read
Long-time friends who have become (or stayed) family, whose lives made the world a more generous and open-hearted place in ways they may not have even known about, so that although their deaths are desperately sad, I’m also so grateful to have known and loved them
Practices (gratitudes, retrospectives, wayfinding, forecasts) that help me remember I’m (as they say) a human being and not a human doing, and awareness of those that don’t (scrolling)
The ability to record movies so that my husband and I can watch something we choose—recently, he saw Love, Actually for the first time and I saw it for the first time in decades, and we both laughed a lot
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Pharmaceutical researchers who even now may be working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurological ravages; cancers; and the vaccine that will mitigate the next pandemic
Home—safe, warm, happy; no matter how unsettled the world is, no matter what may lie in the future for our own household, I’m grateful for these moments here and now
New notebooks and pens I enjoy using
That's not enough--there's never enough gratitude, I suppose--but it's what I have for now.
Best wishes to everyone during this holiday season and throughout 2025.