October 2, 2014

I can’t decide what to write about for my gratitude post tonight.

It’s a good problem to have, actually.  This is why I love having a gratitude practice.  When I go away from it and come back to it, the perspective shift is almost instant.  I still see the mountain of negatives, of chores, of failings, of dusty to-do lists, of hard stuff.  But I begin almost immediately to see all of the good, too.

And then I go to write about them, and I can hardly narrow anything down to write about it properly.

It feels like an embarrassment of riches.

I have this book from my childhood, Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, starring Mickey Mouse as Aladdin.  In it, Aladdin haphazards his way into a treasure trove, where he gets trapped.  The trove features room after room of jewels and jewel trees.  It is truly an embarrassment of riches.  (Of course, the only thing he’s looking for, per the mysterious man who sent him on his mission, is a dingy old lamp, which, of course, holds the wish-granting genie.)  I used to love to stare at those pictures–those shiny, colorful, gorgeous jewels would almost make my eyes water.

  

When I do gratitude practice, I feel like my life is the jewel tree room.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s wonderful.

So today, since I’m keenly aware of the embarrassment of riches and blessings that I currently enjoy, I will indulge in an utterly random bullet list, born of sleep deprivation and indecision and a quiet joy.

I am grateful today for…

• the promise of rain
• the wind in the crispy-leaved trees
• the cicada- and cricket- and locust- and frog-cacophony ongoing in said trees
• the smattering of raindrops that have been blown onto the picture window and that currently glisten in the dining room light
• the promise of Steak and Shake for lunch tomorrow (a Midwestern favorite)
• electric fans and their blessed moving air
• the promise of family and friends and farewells and tears and laughter and music this weekend, a beautiful bittersweet mixture
• the sight of cloud plateaus and tableaux from twenty-plus thousand feet in the air
• flying low over Midwestern suburbs festooned with just-changing and almost-changing trees
• amicable chats with two grandpas today, both of whom still have their wits about them, if not their full physical vigor
• good and supportive friends who provide conversation and encouragement and accountability (…and that one could easily spawn a whole huge sub-bullet list of its own, but I won’t do that tonight)
• writing friends who have enjoyed writing successes and milestones this week
• Midwestern cuisine (even faux foods) and dinner around the table
• this practice
• the Source of all of this

And I’ll leave it at that for now.