Garbage Raccoons

(photo as it appears on: http://corbettbarr.com/2009/)

I am grateful for the raccoons that broke into the garbage bags full of recycling that I had left on the porch. Really, what I should have been doing was driving the recycling out to the designated blue stations on a weekly basis, but instead I let it accumulate and began storing it with the intention of taking one big trip someday. Well, not only did these raccoons call me out on my bad habit, but they instilled in me the motivation to actually load up the recycling and take it where it needed to go.

So thank you, raccoons, for encouraging me to be more responsible with my chores. It's hard to be mad at you when I enabled the problem to begin with.

Weekend Staycation

I am grateful for another weekend staycation! We're off to the Airstream to soak up the vibes of our now-officially-ours Tiny Home. We got the title and a brand-spanking-new license plate.

Here we go.

Thought Experiments

I am grateful for the mind's ability to play with perspective to gain a different understanding of a situation. I am full of biases. Everyone is and often we are not even aware of them. For example, let's say I'm hypothetically (wink wink) watching a political debate between two candidates. Further, let's say that while I'm ultimately undecided, I still favor one over the other. During the course of responses and rebuttals, I find myself agreeing with most things one candidate says while I think most things that the other says are ridiculous. It's not even solely what the person says, but somehow what the person is. Something about the other person is unsettling, disingenuous, and unnatural.

This is about when I became aware of my bias. So I decided to try an experiment. Instead of seeing one person as my favored candidate and the other as questionable, I mentally flipped my conception of them. This turned my bias on its head and I suddenly began evaluating the candidates statements from a radically different point of view. How interesting! This simple thought experiment was garnering new insight despite nothing substantive changing about what was being said.

What else have my biases been filtering and altering on my behalf? How often have I misinterpreted a situation because I was unable or unwilling to see it from a perspective other than my own? Well, I have a feeling that like gratitude this is a skill that can be practiced. I have a feeling it can be and that becoming aware of this possibility is the first step. Now it's simply a matter of being willing to practice it. Thank you for the daily opportunities I am given to understand the world around me a little more.

Good Weekend

I am grateful for the wonderful weekend my wife and I had. As already mentioned, it started off with some great finds at Goodwill. Then we officially spent out first night in our Tiny Home! It was super cool and I absolutely loved it. We're still a few months from being ready to settle in, but we're hoping to spend weekends in there to get a good feel for it and any modifications/repairs we need to make. It was totally like taking a mini vacation.

On Saturday, we hiked out to my wife's parents' house to visit their newfound kittens. A stray had taken shelter by their shed and gave birth to a litter of five. Two remain and we got to play with the little fuzzballs.

We had breakfast with a friend and her little boy the next morning. We made waffles and parfaits, which were delicious. They also got to check out or Tiny Home for the first time.

A family friend also came out to the Tiny Home to take a look at our power needs (he's an electrical engineer) and said it would be a snap to get it all set up! Super exciting. To repay his efforts, we had him and my wife's grandma over for a delicious dinner that we made.

I am grateful for the time we got to spend with friends and family—the people who help us in more ways than we can count—and with our future home. This weekend was a nice blend of productivity and relaxation. I've learned from experience that too much of either can make for a disappointing weekend, but this was just perfect. So thank you. I'll see you next week.

Goodwill Finds

(photo as it appears on: http://nemaloknig.info/read-267806/?page=15)


I am grateful for today's finds at Goodwill. Right off the bat I found an unopened, fully-functional speedometer for my bike. I've been pushing myself to go harder and faster and I'm curious to see how fast I'm actually going (and to keep track of it to be sure I'm improving). It'll also be nice to see how far I bike everyday.

After that, I happened upon the eye-opening book on the universe and astrophysics that I had originally acquainted myself with in high school via my local library: Black Holes and Times Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip S. Thorne. I'm super pumped to read this again. (By the way, this book was published in 1994 and in it Kip describes the theory of gravitational waves and models of what they would look like should they actually exist. Lo and behold, they were discovered this year and the models match exactly! Amazing brains we have on this planet...) Kip was also a consultant for the movie Interstellar to verify that the physics in the movie were correct.

Lastly, I found a book that (I hope) will be interesting and relevant to my wife. It melds ideas of identity and place and tries to understand the union of people and the cities they live in (at least, that's what I garnered from the back).

Here's to thrifty finds!

Failed New Year's Resolution

(photo as it appears on: http://www.irregardless.com/events/bring-in-the-new-years-at-irregardless/)

Seems a funny thing to be grateful for a failure. New Year's resolutions are made in the spirit of self improvement, often accompanied by reassurances like, "This year will be different. This year I'll stick to my resolution." Well, you know what? I didn't. And you know what else? I'm grateful for it.

As you may recall, I had set my sights on learning Python (a computer programming language) to an extent as to be able to use it to solve practical problems. I started off strong (don't we all) but in the last month or two my devotion to this endeavor has waned to a resounding zero. So why am I grateful for this?

This tells me a lot about myself. If you were to ask American pragmatist John Dewey why I stopped learning Python, he would probably say something like, "Because you don't really want to learn it." I may want to learn it in theory, but the evidence shows that I am unwilling to dedicate the time and effort to actually doing so. In other words, actions speak louder than words.

Ultimately, this failed New Year's resolution has helped me get a better sense of my true priorities. Sure, learning Python would be cool. And sure, I love the idea of learning and am often sidetracked by sparkly new skills and hobbies. But actually learning these things to any degree of mastery takes considerable effort that I am often just unwilling to put forth. This is not a bad thing. This means that my time and energy are precious. This means that only a select few areas are worth my devotion. This is really a beautiful revelation. So instead of wallowing in the fact that my New Year's resolution fell through, I'm taking this lesson in stride, letting Python fall to the wayside, and refocusing my attention on that which is pertinent, useful, and meaningful to my life. For example, learning more about Russia and improving my language (I just ordered a couple exciting, informative books from Amazon to this end).

I'm super-psyched about realigning my priorities and I couldn't have done it without failing. So thank you, failed New Year's resolution, for showing me the way.

Today's Run: Becoming a Warrior

(photo as it appears on: http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2015/04/09/dynamic-running-therapy---psychoanalysis-outdoors-william-pullen)

I am grateful for today's run. Every run presents its own challenges. Maybe my knees start hurting and tightening up and I have to stride extra super carefully to be able to finish (and hopefully not slow down too much). Maybe I didn't eat enough and I feel weak. Maybe I ate too much and I feel nauseous. Maybe my mind is telling me I can't make it when I push myself to go harder and faster.

This is why I love running. It seems as simple as putting my feet to the pavement, but there are a million internal battles that go on under the surface. And every time I push through and make it to the finish, I emerge victorious. I'm training my mind and body to become warriors; to be able to face any challenge undaunted; to embrace obstacles as opportunities to become stronger. Some days (like today), it's hard to motivate myself to get out the door and run after work, but in the end it's always worth it.

That runner's high ain't bad, either.

My Mom

Happy Mother's Day to all those past, present, and future mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers (though aren't they all great?). Today, I am grateful for my mom. Along with my dad, she worked tirelessly to support my sister and I. She put up with all my nonsense as a kid. She tried to instill as best she could what it means to be a good human being (Yes, I remember being taken to the picket line when she and her fellow nurses stood up for themselves and went on strike because they weren't being given what they deserved back in the late '90s—and yes, I remember Bernie Sanders coming out to support them! Who knew...).

Thank you, mom, for everything you sacrificed to create a loving, caring home for us. Thank you for being supportive as we embarked on creating lives of our own. Thank you for always being there for us and may we be there for you when you need it.

Thai Food

(photo as it appears on: https://zestyrhythm.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/thai-chicken-curry/)

I am grateful for that delicious Thai food I just had for dinner. I am grateful for my wife, our friend, and her son for joining us. I am grateful that I live in a place where I get to choose what kind of food  to eat and don't have to wonder whether or not I'll be able to eat anything at all. I am grateful that food exists in an abundance and that I have full access to it—so much so that I sit here painfully full as I type this.

I am grateful that in becoming aware of how much I have, I also become aware of how little others do.

Cool Morning

I am grateful for the cool morning we had today. I've been fearing the upcoming heat that's due pretty soon and this was a lovely surprise. It made for an especially nice early morning bike ride to work.

Stay cool.

Everyday Challenges

(photo as it appears on: https://www.petcarerx.com/article/how-to-groom-a-dog/685)

I am grateful for everyday challenges. I'm not talking about the big, life-changing ones, but the simple choices we make everyday about mundane things. For example, my dog needs a bath. However, I just got back from work and I don't feel like expending that energy right now. So I'm faced with a choice: do I postpone this chore (again) or do I acknowledge that while I am indeed tired, I accept this challenge and wash our dog. I am given this golden opportunity to either quash that which holds me back or to give in to what my mind is telling me and stop being productive for the day. What a beautiful gift! The chance to overcome my own obstacles and—after numerous encounters and consistent responses of "challenge-accepted"—an internal resilience and drive to dig deep that has been cemented in habit.

Contrary to what "Fight Club" says, I think self improvement is an amazing thing and one of the most incredible experiences we as humans have. We possess the ability to infinitely refine and perfect our skills, not to mention build and explore new ones. What a beautiful life.

Now let's wash this dog.

New Skills

I am grateful for these new skills I'm acquiring. We may not love every moment and every responsibility we have, but we can always learn from them. These may be life and character lessons or they may be something more practical. For example, I've learned how to make my own almond milk. Not only is it more cost effective, but I can guarantee the freshness of what I'm consuming and that there are literally only three ingredients: water, almonds, and maple syrup; no added extras that they need in order for the product to survive shipping and sitting on a shelf for days or weeks. That makes me feel good. And it makes my body feel good.

Here's to learning something new everyday.

(photo as it appears on: http://livingprettynaturally.com/how-to-make-your-own-almond-milk-some-thoughts-on-dairy/)

Tiny Home

It was the real deal. On Friday, my wife and I (and her parents) brought back our first home. And it wasn't just any home, mind you, but a Tiny Home! We are super excited. It's in fantastic condition and, really, the only modifications we need to make are aesthetic. It's going to take a while for us to transition into that tiny space, but yesterday I dropped a couple things off and couldn't help but smile and imagine what's to come.


(This is pretty much it! Photo as it appears on: http://vintageairstream.com/photo-archives/1973-overlander-27/)

Thank you, Tiny Home, for being the real deal and giving my wife and I the house we've been dreaming of. Thank you, seller, for being a cool guy and allowing us to start our journey of tiny home ownership. And thank you, friends and family, who pulled together and made this possible. Without you, we would have only been able to look at the pretty pictures online and be forced to move on. Let's get tiny.