View Full Version : December Gratitude
December already!
I was thankful today to receive this daily missive from tut.com :
You just never know who in the crowd, standing beside you in line or passing you in the street, might be raised in spirit, or even lifted from despair, by the kindness in your glance or the comfort of your smile.
But they may never forget.
Supersize me,
The Universe
I am a person who, early on in life, rarely received any sort of kindness. Just a few kind words at the right time literally made the difference between me surviving, and not surviving that life. SO grateful to those people who took the time.
Grateful for a few moments free to peruse these boards, and also profoundly grateful for the work that comes my way.
So grateful for my wonderful dentist. His gentle, calm manner makes all the difference to me. I've had 2 crowns replaced with nary a twinge.
Gardenarian
12-2-13, 3:00pm
Grateful for a full belly, warm house, soft bed, good book.
Gardenarian
12-2-13, 4:04pm
I am a person who, early on in life, rarely received any sort of kindness. Just a few kind words at the right time literally made the difference between me surviving, and not surviving that life. SO grateful to those people who took the time.
I'm really sorry about that. It makes one think how important a caring act can be.
I suppose the gift in that, gardenarian, is that I turned out to be very sensitive to the effect my words have on others, good and bad. Sometimes I know that the smile I give the mail-lady or the thank-you I give to the bus driver may be the only ones they get all day or all week.
Gardenarian
12-3-13, 6:17pm
I took a bracing walk on my work break today, and am very grateful for our beautiful campus and the gorgeous views out over the Pacific.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/readaboutit/view_zpsa2fefe4d.jpg (http://s3.photobucket.com/user/readaboutit/media/view_zpsa2fefe4d.jpg.html)
That's a gorgeous view, Gardenarian!
Similarly, I drove around running errands today and was grateful for the natural beauty around me: starch-white mountains in the distance, clear blue skies, deep forests, and sunlight dancing on the lake. What a gift just to live here.
Someone sent this short movie to me recently on gratitude and it brought me to tears in many spots. (It's about 10 minutes long)
I have it saved on my computer for the 'rainy days'. At around the 4:50 and on it really got to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&vq=medium
Puglogic - I agree, small kindnesses go a long way and we really don't have any clue what all we are putting into play in the Universe with our choices & actions.
Gardarian - your photo literally made me go, 'Ahhh' out loud - how wonderful!
I'm very grateful to be at the beginning of trudging through some things that have been festering for many, many years and to have a Good Orderly Direction in which to do it.
I've had some meaningful things happen to me recently that are sparking action.
I have it saved on my computer for the 'rainy days'. At around the 4:50 and on it really got to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&vq=medium
Oh my gosh, mtnlaurel, that was so beautiful (or "beautifuller" as the little girl said :) ) Thank you so much.
Gratitude for whoever invented the snowblower. We did not get socked with two feet of snow as they did in northern Minnesota; closer to 4-5 inches. But the ability to clear it from the sidewalks and a loooong driveway as the snow wound down late this afternoon but before it got dark? Priceless.
I am grateful for living in an area where it was 50 degrees today- not snowing!
On a night predicted to be around minus 12 degrees, I'm grateful for both my furnace AND my woodburning fireplace insert, which is pouring out the heat. We only received about 10 inches of snow, rather than 30, and for that I'm thankful as well!
Feeling grateful and encouraged that I made $260 at my first art fair! I was hoping to make at least $100 and I'd call it successful, but $260 is way more than I expected!
Gratitude for gratitude....I spent the weekend somehow in a wash of feeling blessed and grateful for our snug little house, our sweet friends, my beloved partner, the joy of staying home together to watch a movie....it was a wonderful feeling.
Today is Back To Work but I can feel grateful for the opportunity to work. I struggle with too much work to do but it could be SO MUCH WORSE. I am grateful that my problem is too much rather than too little.
Grateful for recent visit to family and clear roads for driving there and back, safe Prius car, friends who picked up my mail and neighbours who kept an eye on my home.
puglogic
12-10-13, 10:48am
Amazed and delighted that it will actually get above freezing today, after almost a week of subzero temperatures. People are joking about tank tops and shorts.
Grateful for a working snowblower and a wonderful husband who runs it! It still takes 2 hours to clear our not huge driveway, but both of us have much healthier backs due to the blower. Second day in a row to use it. Grateful for beautiful snow.
So grateful for a neighbour who is a renovation contractor. I had a leak in my basement ceiling tile and he came over at 8am this morning, diagnosed a broken seal on my one toilet, bought the replacement while in town on another project and repaired it just after lunch. Wonderful!
Razz, don't you just love handy people who are so willing to help?? Glad you got it diagnosed and fixed.
That's really great Razz!
catherine
12-10-13, 7:34pm
Grateful for this moment, sitting an airport, tired from a full day of interviewing, waiting for my plane.
SteveinMN
12-11-13, 8:56am
Grateful for a quiet calm day after a couple of days of what felt like constant running. Happy to stay inside this very cold day and tidy up the house and my inbox.
I seem to have so much to be grateful for these days.
I had asked about a serviceman for all my small engine equipment with no response locally. I had read the manuals and online in depth and then looked at the all the items that needed attention. I could work my way and learn it all but was not sure I had all the tools and was not sure that I would recognize what was normal vs what was needing correction. And a BIG question - did I want to accept this responsibility along with all the others I had assumed?
I remembered a small service shop in a village nearby that DH had bought some parts from occasionally. I phoned an auto supply in the same area and asked the name of the shop owner. Not only did he give me the name, phone number, his new larger location and address but also recommended his services. The shop owner came over this morning to pick up the snowblower, the rototiller and log splitter plus 4 chain saws to evaluate plus gave lots of advice on care and prevention. It is all supposed to be returned next week.
According to his experience over decades, about 90% of service on today's small engines is due to the ethanol content in regular unleaded gas. Add to this, the fact that so many of the small engines are made in China resulting in very thin seals that are destroyed by the alcohol. When I asked about gas stabilizers, I was advised to simply switch to premium gasoline and run the small engine motors for 10 minutes every 3 months to prevent most problems with today's small engines. Very practical advice! I remember hearing or reading this before but had forgotten.
It is hard to find gratitude on a day when yet another school shooting fractures Colorado, but I can say that I am very grateful more kids weren't hurt. Our hearts break for the ones who were, we watch and wait for news of the girl in critical condition, and our gratitude goes to those who kept the others safe.
Am grateful to have been a volunteer today for my 5th year in a row in a holiday event to help poor kids buy $100 worth of clothes and shoes at the local Walmart. The 125 kids are bused in and we escort them around the store to help them get the right sizes. If they're under budget they can buy a little toy too. The littlest ones are wide-eyed and they are all sweet and very grateful. Really seeing the holiday spirit in action all the way around.
puglogic
12-19-13, 11:54am
Soooo exhausted, tired all the way through my bones, and grateful that I don't have to begin work for another few hours, so I can take a nap and get myself together first....
Thankful for my friends here. Happy holidays everybody!
Gardenarian
12-19-13, 4:12pm
I was dreading being bedridden with foot surgery, but surprisingly I am quite enjoying the freedom from responsibility.
No worries about the housekeeping, chauffeuring, cooking, etc.
Just lying in bed and watching the birds, reading, playing on Pinterest.
Feels like the first vacation I've had in years!
Congratulations, gardenarian :)
fidgiegirl
12-19-13, 8:50pm
I am reading Brené Brown's Daring Greatly (http://www.amazon.com/Daring-Greatly-Courage-Vulnerable-Transforms-ebook/dp/B007P7HRS4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387504025&sr=8-1&keywords=daring+greatly) and she makes the case that it is so important to be vulnerable in order to forge real connection with others, but that we naturally do not want to be emotionally vulnerable and have to work at it. We put up common defenses such as "foreboding joy" - that if something is going well, the first place our minds go is to when the other shoe will drop. I am terrible about this. The antidote? Actively practicing gratitude, so we don't feel that joy is in short supply in our lives, and therefore if any enters, there must be something else terrible waiting just around the corner.
So today, grateful that when I didn't feel well, I could leave work and it was no big deal.
Grateful for friends and neighbours who volunteered to watch my house and pick up my mail while I am away for a few days.
Grateful for the wood that has been keeping my warm that family cut up, split and stacked for me.
Grateful for the group of friends with whom I share books, magazines and jigsaw puzzles as I circulate them to others. Hard to keep track of who has seen what sometimes LOL.
Grateful for the woman who volunteered for years with the local humane society and is finally retiring after making such an amazing difference.
SteveinMN
12-21-13, 8:56am
Grateful for a neighborhood of people who are willing to step beyond the path from their houses to their garages and help when help is needed. A neighbor's house was broken into; I've helped keep an eye on the house until he installs a burglar alarm. When one of the wheelchair-using members of the neighborhood needed transportation, that same neighbor volunteered his van so the person could be just wheeled into a vehicle and not transferred twice. Whoever is out first with a snowblower clears their property and then usually takes a pass over the neighbor's sidewalk. It's a beautiful thing and nothing we ever experienced in the 'burbs.
Also grateful for the peace of this season. Others may be running around doing last-minute shopping in jammed stores or running themselves down with marathon cookie-baking or entertaining sessions and wondering how it all will get done. I'm enjoying the lights on this year's very modest tree and listening to Christmas carols and just enjoying it.
Sooo thankful to be staying home this holiday. If I had my way, I'd stay home every Christmas and visit family for Thanksgiving or the 4th of July! Finishing wrapping our little gifts today, making rum balls, thawing the roast. Quiet little homey activities.
When we got swamped with an icestorm and our power was off for 15 hours, I was so grateful that I was still home to run the sump pump with the generator. I had planned to visit DD2 and be away for 4 days so my basement would have been flooded.
Once it was known that I was kept home by bad weather, I was invited for Christmas eve dinner and a movie with a friend, Christmas dinner with a large family and Boxing Day Chinese food tradition with neighbours. I am so grateful for the degree of caring in this community.
My snowblower is working so well and I can zip around and clear the snow very quickly with the practice I am getting.
Teacher Terry
12-26-13, 6:05pm
That is wonderful that you got so many invites and also that you were home so your basement was not flooded! It is such a huge expense and disruption of life when something like that happens. Enjoy your dinner tonite.
After switching back to 6 am start time for work and then a few days of 3 am & one 4 am start time I am so grateful and EXCITED that I don't have to be at work until 7 am all week. nice:)
Also grateful that all my sisters now have power restored.
Grateful for a wonderful family Christmas visit for several days with weather cooperating. The milder temps are almost over so I was able to bring in the outside decorations before temps dropped and made such removal an unpleasant experience.
Grateful to find a Kobo blog (tohttp://ebookfriendly.com/kobo-tips-tricks/) help me work through the problems I am having with downloading to my KoboGlo reader.
Simply Divine
12-29-13, 10:26pm
I am grateful I am off of work for the next couple of days because the weather is not going to be nice tomorrow. I'll stay in and drink hot chocolate :)
Grateful for a surprise end of year bonus, which prompted me to treat 3 friends to dinner. We all enjoyed spending the company's money!
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