Gratitude, Day 30

Well, it's November 30th and the final day of the Linda-inspired gratitude month.

Well, let me begin by saying that I'm grateful for Linda herself and am proud to be her honorary aunt. Linda is my niece Cindy's closest friend. Their wonderful children are friends and play together. Reading Linda's blog, reading about her struggles and joys as a mother and a human gives me a sense of joy and gratitude for the goodness there is in the world, for our capacity to love and strive and move through life's light and dark moments with grace and an open heart.

I feel like my life has been richly blessed with interesting and wonderful people. When I first ventured into cyberspace, it opened my somewhat closeted life to a world of interesting, kind, creative people. The blogosphere has introduced me to a whole new set of people who I get to know in a deeper way. And the real world offers me my nieces (Cindy and Diana) and my nephew (Matt), my great niece and nephew (Ani and Trevor), kind neighbors and friends, those I see regularly and some with whom I only have occasional contact these days. I really love people, even the ones I don't much like. At core, we are all struggling to find happiness, to find ourselves.

I'm so grateful for - the world of books and words. I started a post the other day listing books, but It was getting kind of long and complicated.... there are so many wonderful books that have touched my life, changed me, enriched me, entertained me. I don't read as much as I used to. I want to change that if I can.

I'm grateful to live in the age of television and movies. Especially as an agoraphobic, how amazing to sit in my living room and see the world, to see animals in the wild, cities, countries, all forms of beauty and creativity. I'm grateful too for all the amazing photo memes and blogs which offer an incredible window into the vast and astonishing range of beauty and magic of lives all over the world.

I'm grateful for reiki which has taught me much about myself and others and about life itself. I was as big a skeptic as you could find when I was first introduced to the idea of healing. It has been an awesome journey into how miraculous the Universe really is and how interconnected we all are. How stunning that I can reach out with my intention and tap another living being with Unconditional Love. How amazing is that!

I'm grateful for the senses, for sound and touch and taste. My second Thanksgiving dinner from my neighbors was awesomely good. I really think you can taste the love that people cook into food. Anybody who hasn't seen the movie Babette's Feast really should make it a point to do so. It's just so beautiful.

I'm grateful for the little things that really aren't little. For water to drink and bathe in, for fuel to heat my house. For the house itself. Out of trials and pain and the bad behavior of some sad, crazy people, I ended up with something I had never even thought to wish for - a home of my own! I am grateful for the kindness of family, friends and strangers who worked together to make that possible.

I'm grateful for Angel and Tara Grace and for Abigail and Katrina who went before them. My mother didn't like animals. Katrina - my first kitty - was a gift from my sister. I don't know if Trini was really a cat or a guardian angel/spirit guide. Whatever she was, she taught me about love. She - and all of my cats - have enriched my life beyond measure. They are teachers, friends, children... They are gifts from God.

I'm grateful that even though I can't walk very well, any more, I still can. I'm grateful that my brain still works, even though I have to search a little harder for words sometimes these days. Boy is that annoying.

I'm grateful that I live in a free country and in a world that - despite the wickedness being perpetrated in so many places - is struggling to find it's way to universal good. Some days it's harder to believe that than others. When salespeople are trampled to death in the passion to get a cheaper television, or when people are blown up in their hotel rooms for purposes that make no sense other than pure evil. Still, these evils, depraved as they are, also allow us to reach into our capacity for good and love and compassion... if we let them. I'm grateful for our new president-to-be and the hope his election gives me. I'm grateful that good things often come out of the ashes of evil and tragedy. I'm grateful for hope and decency and possibilities.

I'm grateful for life and beauty. I'm grateful for wonders yet to be and for life itself, grateful, that at 61 I am still learning to open my heart to love and life and to myself.

I'm grateful for all of you.

May your day and your lives be rich in peace, joy and an abundance of gratitude. Thank you for being you and for visiting my little blog and sharing my day.