63 things I’m grateful for on my sixty-third birthday

Today, January 28, 2019, is my sixty-third birthday.

Below are some of the things, in no particular order, that I’m grateful for today and every day. When I started to write the list I wondered if I could make it to sixty-three. Funny thing, when I got there, I could have kept going on and on. In fact, the list of things I’m grateful for is virtually endless. But this is a good start.

1. I’m grateful I didn’t have to go back to bed this morning a half hour after I got up because I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open like I was yesterday #sleptuntil1330 #chestinfection
2. I’m grateful my cough has reduced by about one-third since yesterday
3. I’m grateful my car started so I could go and get milk
4. I’m grateful I have a car, despite the fact that it’s a piece of s***
5. I’m grateful for milk and the cows and farmers who produce it
6. I’m grateful for all the incredibly talented, creative, energized, open, amazing people who have touched, and continue to touch my life in some way – I am SO lucky!
7. I’m grateful that putting the humidifier in my bedroom helped me sleep better last night
8. I’m grateful I didn’t eat chocolate in bed, and end up with it all over me and the sheets
9. I’m grateful for Mom’s antique clocks tick-tocking the time of my life
10. I’m grateful my hearing is good
11. I’m grateful for silver, blue, pink and/or purple hair depending on my choice
12. I’m grateful I have a bed to sleep in
13. I’m grateful for my down duvet
14. I’m grateful for feather pillows and that I have four of them
15. I’m grateful I have water to drink
16. I’m grateful I have more than enough food to eat
17. I’m grateful for warmth
18. I’m grateful weather is varied and not boring
19. I’m grateful for the crystals in my window
20. I’m grateful the crystals produce a shower of rainbows on the living room wall in the late afternoon when it’s sunny
21. I’m grateful Meed Baldwin encouraged me to take up curling when I moved to North Hatley in 2013
22. I’m grateful for ice
23. I’m grateful for the cleats I got from Mississippi Mills Support Services that stop me from falling on slippery streets
24. I’m grateful I can still walk
25. I’m grateful the herniated disc that rendered me immobile for four months in 2017 seems to have mostly cured itself
26. I’m grateful I have only occasional back issues at the moment
27. I’m grateful for having friends and acquaintances worldwide
28. I’m grateful for the love and support I get from my friends near and far
29. I’m grateful for the dozens of birthday messages I got via social media from friends near and far (i.e. across Canada, the United States and the UK, as well as Spain, Ireland, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Senegal, Kenya, Germany, and Italy)
30. I’m grateful for tears and for the capacity to produce them in abundance
31. I’m grateful for sneezing, which, though sometimes a little annoying is also orgasmic in its own way (yay for orgasms of all kinds)
32. I’m grateful for tissues
33. I’m grateful for clementines and for Carolyn Thériault’s writing about them
34. I’m grateful for the grain bags I heat up in the microwave and put in bed at night to keep my feet warm, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to do the same for Mom every night for the year before she went to #DementiaJail
35. I’m grateful for poetry, and for having discovered I can write it
36. I’m grateful for words and how combining them into rhyming poetry is such a joyful jigsaw puzzle
37. I’m grateful I can write prose passably, even though the bit I most like about writing prose is being finished doing it
38. I’m grateful for my magical Christmas tree (yes, it’s still up!)
39. I’m grateful I found the exact model of bra I wanted at The Bay in December and I bought six of them so I may never have to buy another bra again
40. I’m grateful for wine
41. I’m grateful for goat cheese
42. I’m grateful for hot smoked salmon from the Keet-Baird smokehouse in Fitch Bay, Quebec
43. I’m grateful for 70% chocolate
44. I’m grateful for #PINK in all its wonderful shades from dusty rose to fuschia
45. I’m grateful I will be getting my new front tooth on February 7! Yay! I can’t wait.
46. I’m grateful I have purpose in my life
47. I’m grateful for solitude and connection
48. I’m grateful I came back to Canada to be Mom’s care partner in 2011, even though I was terrified and didn’t really want to at the time
49. I’m grateful for all the things I’ve learned in the last ten years, and in the last 63 years for that matter
50. I’m grateful I learned to type in grade eight
51. I’m grateful for every breath I take
52. I’m grateful I have made and am still making a positive impact in the world
53. I’m grateful I have changed many people’s lives for the better through my training, facilitation, and various websites and blogs
54. I’m grateful I’m eccentric and quirky
55. I’m grateful I’m an Aquarian
56. I’m grateful for loving touch, however it’s delivered
57. I’m grateful for my body, especially for its strength and flexibility
58. I’m grateful for creativity
59. I’m grateful for opportunities to collaborate
60. I’m grateful for fantasy
61. I’m grateful for reality
62. I’m grateful for laughter, fun, lightheartedness, humour, and comedy
63. I’m grateful I made it to 63

Thank you for readying my list, which I invite you to share if you are moved to do so. Even better, create a list of your own, and see if it changes your outlook and your energy.

10 things i’m grateful for today 140908

10 things i’m grateful for today 160811

i am the river