I’m not finished with 2016 yet. I feel the need to recap or amalgamate or conclude. So many positive things happened this year (last year?) and I don’t feel like I’ve been properly grateful. Because it’s not like I am thankful every day for the resurrection I have experienced. I’ve been kind of busy. And the truth is, I am not the kind of person who goes on “gratitude walks”. Or wakes to say, “Gosh I am happy for this pillow. For that tinkling iPhone alarm. I am thrilled for the coffee I pour down my gullet, the warm boots, the car scraper….”
Is anyone thankful every day?
Other than a priest or a yoga teacher? I have decided that in 2017 I am going to start making schedules for everything outside of work. Extra-curricular writing on Wednesdays and Fridays, the Y on Tuesdays and Thursdays, full-on thankfulness on Mondays. That way I won’t sit up in bed every day with this urgent need to figure out the best/first thing to do when there are so many options. Or chastise myself for being resentful or snippy or an ingrate. (You’d self medicate too if you lived in my head…)
I know about the power of positive thinking and I am an upbeat individual for the most part. But I am sure I would benefit from a daily rosary instead of a catch as catch can, nothing else to do while I’m driving, rosary… That will go on my 2017 schedule as well. (I’m feeling anxious and overworked already… )
I guess the point is, even though I didn’t think about it every day, I am profoundly thankful for 2016. For everything wonderful that happened to me as I reinvent myself as a sober person. (Wow, three years into this sobriety thing I am actually thinking of myself as a “sober person”).
I Am Thankful For (in no particular order):
- A great job and the Green family
- My sobriety
- This body – that after all I have put it through remains strong and able
- The three flights of stairs I walk up to work and home (cardio vascular endurance mate…)
- My apartment – a quiet place to recharge…
- That new car (a story for another time)
- Experiencing a Michigan autumn again!
- Always and every day, thankful for my kids, but now I am so happy they have meaningful relationships and employment
- Kallie and John
- Kim and Claudio (he’s also in the category of “guys with second homes”)
- Dee’s one-liner words of wisdom that I always hear…
- Traveling to awesome places this year: Puerto Rico, Up North. Jacksonville, St. Petersburg, Chicago, Palm Beach!!
- The reconnection with Flint, my mother and Anne, Carrie and Jackie (and of course Ross)
- My Wednesday morning walking buddies…
- Guys with second homes – you know who you are…
- Insanely good health (knocking Formica now…)
- The uber-brain in my head
- Hiking
- My young friends Ellie and Evie
- My amazing history…
- That charming ability to string words together with some skill
- George’s sage advice and friendship
- My outings with Cindy
- The readers of this blog who help me as much as I help them
- Donald Trump (just kidding…)
- My sobriety
- The 2016 holiday season, when I saw or spoke or emailed all my loved ones including my ex-husband… (except Val but she’s somewhere super cool at her fiancé’s “olive farm” in Spain …)
Okay. Now I’m finished with 2016. Ready for the best year EVER. Happy NEW YEAR 2017!!!
