THANKFUL TO BE DOING AND MAKING. NO LONGER JUST WATCHING AND TAKING.

My friend Paula has had a truly crappy month, filled with so much sadness amongst the people she works with and cares about. In an email she sent a few days ago, she wrote, "I do not journal or take pictures, but you made me think about my old gratitude journal and how your blog is often like that. So, I have been trying everyday to find one thing I would take a picture of, if I had a gratitude blog. One day it was a glass of good merlot in my new waterford wine glass."

This got me to thinkin' - about my blog and its purpose (I hadn't realized until then that it actually is a "gratitude blog"!), and about all the many things I have to be thankful for this year. And, of course, being the kind of person that I am, I felt compelled to make a list:

Things I Am Thankful For

• This blog, and the lessons it has taught me.
• The brand new, very pretty, 100% recycled journal that I just cracked open this morning, a smooth-flowing gel pen, and the seemingly endless supply of words I manage to produce with the two.
• Excellent vision, thanks both to contact lenses, and to the new way I have learned to look at the world, since moving to the Hill Country.
• Siblings, to share both the joy and the sadness connected to our parents' aging and passing.
• Two wonderful kids, who never caused us any truly serious distress, and who (miracle of miracles) still seem to enjoy spending time with us.
• A loving husband, who takes delight in watching me grow and change, and who has never tried to "keep me in my place."
• Becoming Re-Connected: both to new friends I have made here in Wimberley and through the blogosphere, and to old ones who bothered to stay in touch through all our years of nomadic wandering; to a community; to those who grow and produce that which I consume; to those who have come before me, and who were brave enough to forge a better life for their children and grandchildren, and to those who will come after me, for whom I wish to do the same; to this tiny bit of earth, upon which we have made our home; and to the larger Earth, and the need to keep it habitable.
• Becoming more self-sufficient - rediscovering the joy to be found in doing and making, rather than just watching and taking.

What about you? What's in your gratitude journal?