thankfulness

we have so many things to be thankful for that it's a cliché. we say we're thankful for a roof over our heads and food on the table, but it's hard to really appreciate things we pretty much take for granted. house, food, clothes, indoor plumbing, a world free of polio.

anyway, before i veer completely into cynicism, i wanted to talk about a few specific things that i feel actual gratitude for.

1. yesterday at thanksgiving celebration, i spent an hour or so playing legos with my nephew who not long ago was battling cancer. there he is, cancer free and now nearly off the prednisone, a delightful five-year old boy with health, patience, stamina, a budding sense of humor, and a fascination with legos that granted me a measure of peace from the family fray.

2. every morning, i put on eyeglasses. some days, i'll end up inserting contact lenses, and some days i'll stick with the glasses, but on no day to do not correct my vision. without correction, my vision is so poor that it's not an overstatement to say i'd not be able to live an independent life, but with these simple corrective devices, i'm able to do whatever the remainder of my body will allow.

3. now, i realize being thankful for a yoga app presumes thankfulness for everything from electricity to smart phones, but i am trying to be specific. for the past few weeks, i've made good use of an app i got for free from starbucks. if i'd known it was this good, i'd have happily paid for it. i've told lots of people about it and used it lots of times. it's great to be able to do quality yoga at home.

4. whenever i see them, i am thankful for cedar trees. their charlie-brown-christmas-ish scraggliness belies an unparalleled inner beauty, and their ability to grow in the most unlikely places is a testament to the power of sheer determination. cedar trees spend centuries breaking rocks to dirt to make way for more showy deciduous trees. and, they just smell so damn good.

5. at the time, i didn't think it really mattered - i thought it was a guy thing - but when we were house shopping, my old man held out for an attached garage. let me tell you something about attached garages: they ARE all they are cracked up to be. not have to wrestle the weather whilst boarding and deboarding cars, and not ever having to scrape an icy windshield - these are real luxuries.


okay, yes, i am thankful for family, friends, house, food, clothes, job, health, et cetera and so on and so forth. all of that and more. but sometimes the enormity of the blessings mute their individual worth. there's so much to be thankful for that it's difficult to be truly thankful for any of it. i don't want to be numb to the riches and the beauty around me, and i find it helps me appreciate everything if i get specific about a few things.