the sun enters stage left

Today I am grateful for a doctor, medicine, a bed, lots of pillows, a prediction of rain, a hike before it, a shower, electricity, internet, coffee, washing powder, and Netflix.

nostalgia

Today I am grateful for a belly laugh.

Hayduke Trail

"All it takes is a tiny little patch of shade, but it makes a pretty good break spot. A lot of what the wilderness teaches us - it kinda just comes down to being aware of our own thoughts and having a little bit of control over them. Humans are very habitual creatures and we develop patterns in order to save work but since there is so much variability in the wilderness it forces us to approach each task as it's own problem. At first it might be kind of overwhelming and very mentally draining to confront each problem individually instead of running a predetermined pattern of behavior but over time that approach itself becomes a pattern and then it becomes automatic, and this approach can deal with a variety of problems. It takes a lot more information into account and I think it produces better outcomes."
Money Shot, or Alex Maier

of all the giving thanks on thanksgiving

She writes: Tell her what you're thankful for and your favorite Thanksgiving memory.

There's no way.

I am thankful for a walk, three girls, wailing on a church road, grapes, graham crackers, and chocolate covered pretzels. I am thankful for a kid, his wife, music, and how love and today.
Today will have to be it.


I am grateful for thanksgiving on this day in the history of all the world of days.

odds in favor, note to self

Turn off the music. Stand straight enough to create energy with your muscles, your bones, your cartilage, your ventricles, everything, just everything. Reach up by pushing that way and send through you  a wish, a shout, a whisper, a hope that whoever you need to be okay is okay and it's going to be alright and we'll look back on this and laugh.


Today I am grateful for medicine and doctors and that healing is not only possible, it happens frequently.

soundtrack

If a group of people were to possibly look at each other and say we have to have a song from here, it would be What You Don't Do from Lianne La Havas. If a t-shirt is created, it will have a list of things. A cat, a key, lots of birds, and a jar.


Today I am grateful for three women, two others and anyone else who allowed us that time together.

fishing

Today I am grateful for a day with the birds.

gone fishing

Today I am grateful for water, sand, wind, and friends.

the everafter

Today is the day, that day, the one of the 5,4,3,2...load up and head to work.


Today I am grateful for work and all that comes after it.

present and future in 5, 4, 3, 2,

Today I am grateful for sloppy joes, crisp dill slices, photographs, and rainbows.
I am grateful for new names and old friends and two more days until I see them.
And a nap.
Lots of naps.
I am grateful for a future of sleeping in a bed after a bath with candles and music.

reasons

Today I am grateful for a day of stories, for playing catch up on a program, for a sport, for a key to a building, and for that hour I thought I lost my phone. I am grateful she blocked my car in, a surprise hug, and more work than I'll ever get done.

a day we sing

It will be a message, a voicemail, and I will sing the song as no other has ever sung that song because at least five times a year I try to top the last performance.

So here goes, baby.

Happy Birthday to you.
Happy, happy birthday to you, you, you.
That's right. YOU.
From the woman who took your $15 and didn't even send you a card.


(yet)


Seriously. It's coming. Maybe.



Happy Birthday to you.



Today I am grateful for someone who has put up with me for 28 years. Others have done longer time but only few have been exposed to the harsh reality of me breaking down on the trail and even sometimes in life and then quietly watching and many times helping pick me up off the ground. He should never have had to, but you can never say thank you enough for a guy like that. Or I can't.

the dramatic countdown five in the favorite time of year

They laughed and agreed and it's almost here. We are almost there.

Work first.


Today I am grateful that he got a job, I have a job, and the garbage gets picked up Monday.
I am grateful for the crisp, cool air.

snotty nosed kids

She gets caught not in briars but harmless little stick thingies or that's what we call them. They end up on our hats, our coats, our gloves, in our hair until we walk backwards down our favorite road. I force them to talk about time and they talk at the same time and she wore her gloves on her feet and she went barefoot the last half mile.

He typed, "Phone was destroyed. Got my old one working again though. All is well. Ranger test went well but didn't get the job."


She asks, "How was his phone destroyed?"


I didn't even ask.



Today I am grateful for snotty nosed kids.

the day's resolution

I do hereby resolve in the most legal and wordy way to stop treating time as if it's my enemy, as if it will never give me enough to do and get everything I want and need and that by doing so it would diminish for anyone else anywhere they may be.


Today I am grateful to sweep, to bake, to hike, to write, to enjoy my time right here, right now.

relax

It's that time with those people when we kick back and enjoy the company of being on the beach. We can't do that without her and I try to say it and I don't know if I mess up but we're not going to do it without her.


Today I am grateful for an opportunity and a plan and a week.

whisper

"Love more," he whispers.



Today I am grateful for work.

climb

"I got what I needed instead of what I wanted and that's just about the best kind of luck I think you can have." Cormac McCarthy


Today I am grateful for a book, a dining room light, a thick blanket, electricity, heat, internet, and extra time.

evaluation

I didn't realize how much I would like it, people's views of how I do my job and it's not that I want the criticisms to be my favorite part but I like when someone can find something wrong that I haven't noticed before. The others feel like love notes between me and all my friends.

There is one about improvement that is so could be anything and everything I do but that person says they know I'm willing to take constructive criticism. And I wish I could scream yes, yes, yes through the anonymous system.

Then there's the she knows how to take good photos and she is in control of the people she takes photos of.

Oh, how I want his/her/their suggestions.


Today I am grateful for evaluations.

note to nana

I wish I could see you see him. I smile when I think about it.
Today I am grateful for a home and a family.

don't hold your head up, note to self

Don't say a word. Don't leave your house or pick up your phone or text anyone.
Don't make excuses for your behavior.
Don't act like everything is okay, and don't let up on examining this mistake.
Be grateful that someone may give you another chance to make better choices about the words formed by your lips.

hold your head up

I turn right to glance at him making sure to not make eye contact. I just need to know he's alright and he's not and they're not and he can't roar anymore but he does manage to say loud enough for all us, "If the worst thing that you ever have happen to you is that you lose a football game, then you're living a great life."


Today I am grateful to shoot some basketball, to make some free throws, and to stake a claim to some acreage on a court. By the end of the season I plan to have a three pointer. Head held, Coach.

same

Today we will do everything the same.
So I am going to tell him that he owes me dinner, and he'll smile.

Today I am grateful for routine
and a reason to make venison chili. (the first of the season)

leave a trace

One more change to change it back so that I do not change anything. Almost I say, "But change is part of the process. You're not the same. I'm not. We're here because of change."

Instead I reply, "Yes sir," and listen.


Today I am grateful for us, when we change and when we don't.

surrounded by inspiration

Today I am grateful for enough, for more than I ever thought possible, and for how I thought that same thing last week before any of this happened.

love type

Do what you do.

She smiles.

Let's do this.

Hell yes!

Love you, babe.

You, too.



Today I am grateful that he typed, Be where your feet are. Be present in the moment.

connect

"A movie of my people," she says.

"A movie of mine, too."



Today I am grateful for a woman who made courage look like,
"What other choice could I have made?"
a movie, spaghetti, and two people who said, "Yes."

spoiler alert

Remember we talked about it, the slurp from the can. The so leave you hanging way that the food and that gel like what must have been I don't know what part of the body moves at negative a lot miles per hour

down

until it drops

from about Brad Pitt waist high


onto and into




a nasty bowl shoved in the corner of the room.



And she just sits there until he says, "Now you can."


That's the dog I am.



Today I am grateful for a weekend and a movie with some friends.

in my failings

I am honored to be a part of your success.


Today I am grateful for forgiveness and grace.

begin

Today I am grateful for a chill, for the smoke rising from my cup of coffee, for an end, a beginning.