Heat

I am grateful for the humid, all-enveloping, and at times stifling heat. Relatively speaking, the weather really hasn't been that bad. In fact, it has been downright pleasant a lot of the time. However, there's a time of day when the heat is inescapable and it starts invading your consciousness and making it difficult to think straight (a pinch of hyperbole, I admit).

But in these moments, stepping outside in the backyard, sitting in one of the lounge chairs in the shade and letting the breeze hit you is nothing short of a miracle. My humanity is instantly returned and I become ever so grateful for existing in this space and at this time. The little things matter and without the heat to make me uncomfortable, I may have let that little breeze go unnoticed.

Thank you.

Frustrations

Today, I am grateful for frustrations. They're a pain in the butt and in the moment we wish they didn't exist, but ultimately they are challenges to be overcome; they are opportunities to learn and to grow. Frustrations allow us to pause and rethink our approach. Why isn't what we're doing working? What can I be doing differently? What are some other ways to perceive this? Often I don't take advantage of these opportunities in the moment, but rather after I've stepped away for a minute and had a chance to separate myself from the situation. Regardless, the learning takes place and I grow from these experiences.

Thank you, frustrations, for helping me become a better person, as painful as it may be.

Post-Work Sunset

After a long day of work, walking outside to see something beautiful is a wonderful thing. It reminds me that the universe we live in is incredible and that I should never cease to be amazed. That brief moment as I walked to my car was all it took to put a smile on my face and lift some weight off my shoulders. There are things to worry about and there are things not to worry about. Allowing myself to appreciate such a remarkable natural phenomenon allowed me to reframe my perspective and, if only for a moment, realize everything is going to be OK and that I'm doing just fine.

Thank you, sunset, for reminding me that everyday life is filled with beauty and that all it takes is a step back to see it.

Heads up on the upcoming super blue blood moon.

Jasmine Green Tea

I am grateful for the jasmine green tea we just got. It's been about two weeks since I've had any coffee (by far, the longest I've gone since I started drinking it in 2013, i.e. when I started grad school) and hot, soothing tea has been a saving grace. Honestly, I'm surprised I can go a full day with nothing more than a green tea, but hey—the human body and mind is amazing.

Thank you, tea, for bringing warmth and comfort into my body and giving me just a little caffeine. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to step away from something that I've had mixed feelings about for a while now (the headaches, the sluggishness, the ever-increasing tolerance, the dependence). Here's to just a little more clarity and stability. Thank you.

By the way, welcome back.

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.