The Mindful Gratitude Thread

[MacAllister]

One of the admittedly simple things that's gotten me through the last year and a half is practicing deliberate gratitude for at least one or two small things, every day.

At first, I was actually writing them down on slips of paper and storing them in a jar to revisit, whenever things seemed too grim. I've gotten a bit lazy about that, lately, but then it occurred to me to share the notion, here, in case other AWers might find it useful.

These can be VERY small things, or very large things, or anything at all that you're grateful for, really.

For example:

I'm grateful for the customers that respect my knowledge and intelligence enough to actually ask me what I think about self-dosing with horse-wormer, and change their minds (or at least they change their minds about buying their ivermectin at *my* feed store...)

I'm grateful for the crew I work with, who are a wildly diverse, genuinely kind, and pretty hilarious bunch of people.

You're all cordially invited to play along, and stash your own moments of mindful gratitude right here. For me, it's been mostly about practicing better emotional and mental hygiene during these very difficult times -- but it really does help break that spiral of negativity we all sometimes get sucked into.

 

[AlanHeise]

Hi and welcome, I also daily practice gratitude in all I am experiencing daily. Life is to be enjoyed in all of its aspects and we should not dwell on the harsh things in life but be grateful about the lives we have. Positive thinking will bring positive things in life. It sounds wonderful to have a great crew of people to work with as so many do not enjoy that situation.

 

[Maryn]

I'm getting up there in years, with typical health problems that are mildly painful or simply annoying rather than anything serious going on.

I focus on the last part of that sentence every day. There are so many people my age facing debilitating illness or approaching death. So what if my knees hurt and my eye problem is slowly worsening? I can walk, I can see, and I've got nothing going on that's going to shorten my life.

Maryn, feeling her years tonight

 

[frimble3]

I am grateful for good neighbours. My health (not all that good for twenty years) has got worse - arthritis in the hands up to the wrists, and balance issues.
The nice young husband and father next door pops over if they haven't seen or heard me in a while (in case I have fallen down, he would be of more use, and he doesn't want his wife stressed by any neighbour-on-the-floor scenario).
The neighbour on the other side asks if I need anything if they're going shopping.
And the Jehovah's Witnesses call to see how I'm doing (no God talk, just checking in) or need anything.
World's best neighbours.

 

[mccardey]

I also have neighbours and because I live alone, them on one side mow my nature strip (*not a euphemism) and them on the other side bring me meals on religious festivals or whenever the TV has told them to look out for the elderly and people living alone and I keep wanting to say YOU'RE 100 YEARS OLD AND YOU LIVE ALONE - DO YOU SEE ME BRINGING YOU MEALS? but it's just too sweet, so I give them eggs from my chooks.

People are lovely.


ETA: *Helix once asked me if that was a euphemism

 

[frimble3]

I'm not big on euphemisms. My back yard is a weed patch growing over the ruins of a little spring-bulb garden. Mother-in-law of nice-man-next-door came over to 'help' because she's way fussier about that stuff than I am. She didn't ask, just ripped stuff up, including the crocuses and snowdrops that were dying back for next year. And, she was talking about 'moss killer' on the moss that I had carefully installed and encouraged to show off the bulbs against. (It's a dark little corner, so plants that like a nice cool Spring feel right at home.)
However, her heart was in the right place, and, my word, the buttercups and dandelions are gone.

 

[mccardey]

She didn't ask, just ripped stuff up, including the crocuses and snowdrops that were dying back for next year. And, she was talking about 'moss killer' on the moss that I had carefully installed and encouraged to show off the bulbs against. (It's a dark little corner, so plants that like a nice cool Spring feel right at home.)
However, her heart was in the right place, and, my word, the buttercups and dandelions are gone.

I feel this. Love is not always what you want it to look like - but love is always love.

 

[skelly]

I'm grateful that Absolute Write Forums is still here and that you are still running it Mac. Heart emoji.

 

[lizmonster]

I'm grateful there are people who work, kindly and patiently, with dementia patients. Most immediate family, I think, are woefully unequipped to handle the disease - these people are brisk, good-hearted, communicative, and absolutely professional.

I know there are bad actors in the elder care business. But I'm so very grateful for the good ones.

 

[MacAllister]

This morning I am profoundly grateful for the rain this week. The weather has been so weird all summer, and the horse pastures were getting pretty dry.

 

[Chris P]

Gratitude is a hugely powerful thing. It's more than once kept me from taking impulsive actions out of anger or frustration that I would have regretted. I don't even have to be in some twisted way grateful about the situation I'm angry or frustrated about. Just grateful about something.

Of all the more spiritual things I could be grateful for today (loving marriage, money in the bank, physical health allowing me to improve the house and yard, the house and yard), the most self-indulgent one is bacon, and the recipe I found for pecan sandies with bacon. It's been driving my day.

 

[Introversion]

the recipe I found for pecan sandies with bacon

I think many of us would be grateful for that recipe…

 

[mccardey]

pecan sandies with bacon.

share

 

[Chris P]

Zingerman's Pecan Sandies with Bacon.

Might be the best thing I've posted on AW ever. (I've not made them yet, but...bacon. Pecans. C'mon.)

 

[Ari Meermans]

Make 'em. I don't think you'll be sorry. That's the recipe I used last year for the neighborhood Fall Flavors Exchange. Went over like gangbusters. just sayin'

 

[Chris P]

Make 'em. I don't think you'll be sorry. That's the recipe I used last year for the neighborhood Fall Flavors Exchange. Went over like gangbusters. just sayin'

Yep, not sorry at all! They came out so light it's, um, easy to forget how many you've had. Which is indeed something to be grateful for.

 

[CMBright]

Right now I'm grateful there is another responsible adult in the household to take over the care of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Bottle baby kittens. A solid black and an orange. Agouti manifests weird on orange felines.

If you hear a scream of pure, primal JOY, it will be because the shelter finally got them off our hands and into the care of a kitten foster.

Glad the bacon treats turned out well.

 

[mrsmig]

I spent part of the day in the garden, installing a small hoop house so I can continue to grow vegetables into colder weather. Even though I was exhausted when the job was done, I'm grateful I was able to do it myself, even though kneeling to plant is hard on the ol' back and knees, and getting back up again isn't as easy as it used to be.

I'm grateful for all the free/inexpensive Zoom gardening classes I took this year that gave me the knowledge and courage to try different growing methods.

I'm grateful to my husband for always being willing to lend a hand when I need one, or simply advise me on the proper tools for a job (and for the loan of his stonemason grandfather's hammer when I needed to pound in some rebar).

 

[frimble3]

Be grateful for the old-fashioned tools (that don't break down) and the heirs that thought to keep them, and not dispose of them.

 

[Chris P]

I'm grateful today for the financial, physical, and know-how ability to respond to unexpected little problems that will require a lot of elbow work, some expense, and some knowledge to correct.

 

[oneblindmouse]

I'm grateful today for the professional people helping Mr Mouse and me with all the legal and bureaucratic hassle of buying a new home, so that we can move (hopefully in early November) to the centre of town where I'll at last have greater quality of life.

 

[MacAllister]

I'm having a bit of a slog today - but I'm grateful for this thread. It's encouraging and cheerful on a day I really needed that!

 

[mrsmig]

Today I'm grateful that one of my favorite foxes returned to the yard last night. He was in a BIG territorial fight Friday evening, and the trail cameras caught him leaving the yard afterward, limping and clearly exhausted. Teddy is quite the chowhound, so when he didn't show up for his snacks Saturday night, I was really worried.

He still looks a bit beat up and stiff, but he wasn't skulking around, and the fox he fought with (which wasn't one of my regulars) hasn't returned. Teddy has a special place in my heart because he was eaten up with mange when he first came to the yard in late spring, but with meds and good food he has been recovering nicely.

This is the ol' Tedster. He's heavier and furrier now, but still chock full of personality:

 

[frimble3]

Today I'm grateful that one of my favorite foxes returned to the yard last night. He was in a BIG territorial fight Friday evening, and the trail cameras caught him leaving the yard afterward, limping and clearly exhausted. Teddy is quite the chowhound, so when he didn't show up for his snacks Saturday night, I was really worried.

He still looks a bit beat up and stiff, but he wasn't skulking around, and the fox he fought with (which wasn't one of my regulars) hasn't returned. Teddy has a special place in my heart because he was eaten up with mange when he first came to the yard in late spring, but with meds and good food he has been recovering nicely.

This is the ol' Tedster. He's heavier and furrier now, but still chock full of personality:

Aww. He's looking good, considering his beginnings. And, if he was just beat-up and stiff, but the other fox hasn't been back, I think that counts as a 'win' for the Tedster. No fox is going to call him 'mangy'!

 

[mccardey]

Today I'm grateful that one of my favorite foxes returned to the yard last night. He was in a BIG territorial fight Friday evening, and the trail cameras caught him leaving the yard afterward, limping and clearly exhausted. Teddy is quite the chowhound, so when he didn't show up for his snacks Saturday night, I was really worried.

He still looks a bit beat up and stiff, but he wasn't skulking around, and the fox he fought with (which wasn't one of my regulars) hasn't returned. Teddy has a special place in my heart because he was eaten up with mange when he first came to the yard in late spring, but with meds and good food he has been recovering nicely.

This is the ol' Tedster. He's heavier and furrier now, but still chock full of personality:

I am so so conflicted by this because honestly aren't foxes the most beautiful thing, and don't I LURVE their little faces. Unfortunately, down here, they're not a force for good - but if I could catch one and tame it and keep it inside, I would totally do that.