The Mindful Gratitude Thread

[Jazz Club]

I am just really astonished that it's shown that widely! I wouldn't have been surprised if you had a version of your own, but it's somewhat mindblowing that our little procedures are so interesting.
And sometimes an episode shows you stuff that you hadn't even thought of: in the middle of COVID, when it seemed every port in the world was jammed up, they showed Customs agents checking shipping containers on a ship.
I figured this was matching the Customs documents against the actual cargo, a fairly quick process, all in all.
Turns out they open every container, walk around inside and look for other stuff as well: one had the right merchandise, all on pallet-boards. There appeared to be sawdust on the floor of the container. The Customs person explained that the 'sawdust' was actually 'frass', the droppings of insects, in this case little beetles that were living n the wood of the pallet boards. (This is how the invasive borer pine-beetle first got a foot-hold in BC.)
The whole shipment was re-sealed, and told to go back where it came from until it was decontaminated and cleared for cleanliness.
No more beetles for us! Instead, murder hornets crept in - but at least we keep trying.

They show the Canada border control show here too. I quite like it. They also show the Australian one, the UK one, the Ireland one, and the US one. I've watched a few of each to compare how the border control officers act. Very interesting.

They also show cop reality shows from all of the above countries (and New Zealand). The New Zealand one is the best. There's a bridge (can't remember which city it's in) where drivers keep running out of petrol halfway across, and the cops bring them some and them fine them for forgetting to fill their own tank Once a goat escaped on the motorway and outwitted a cop for a good half hour. I think these episodes are pretty old though.

 

[frimble3]

They show the Canada border control show here too. I quite like it. They also show the Australian one, the UK one, the Ireland one, and the US one. I've watched a few of each to compare how the border control officers act. Very interesting.

They also show cop reality shows from all of the above countries (and New Zealand). The New Zealand one is the best. There's a bridge (can't remember which city it's in) where drivers keep running out of petrol halfway across, and the cops bring them some and them fine them for forgetting to fill their own tank Once a goat escaped on the motorway and outwitted a cop for a good half hour. I think these episodes are pretty old though.

I feel cheated! I shall write e-mails to the CBC, and that channel that puts all the real-life crime shows on! I, too, wish to compare services!
(There should be a separate channel, 'Commonwealth Crime' or some such!)

 

[Fi Webster]

Today I am again grateful that I am mostly retired, doing my doctor stuff only over the phone, because it means I no longer have to "look professional."

So... to my enormous delight, I've started dying about half of my hair (the chunks framing my face) a deep ultramarine blue. It's a gorgeous shade with just a hint of violet.

I was emboldened by all the elderly women I see in my local coop grocery store and organic market who have all sorts of wild colors in their hair. 'Saw one the other day who looked at least 80: her hair was like tie-dye! Bright orange, turquoise, green, purple... all swirly... utterly fab.

Maybe the country's fallin' apart, but I take comfort in the fact that when I look in the mirror, I have the "punk" blue hair I've dreamed about ever since about 1980.

 

[KennyIsArlos]

This thread is awesome, keep it going! Two things that I am grateful for:

1) My beautiful golden retriever; she's 14 years old, and will be 15 in late November. She had a mass last year that required surgery with a 90% chance to be cancerous, but she's alive today to tell you that she landed in the 10%. She's doing very well for her age, and she's always hungry! Typical golden stuff.

2) My pajama shirt. I got it on a trip 10 years ago, and it's one of the comfiest shirts I own, despite all of the holes. I don't know if there's anything I would trade it for, besides my dog, or maybe the same exact shirt with less holes.

 

[Yportne]

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

Me too, Maryn. Turned 80 a few months ago and every morning I wake up and look over at my wife and think, "Wow, we're still alive and full of enthusiasm for life... it's gonna be a lovely day!"

 

[Maryn]

And isn't that a fabulous way to begin every day?

I'm grateful to have moved to a place where it's much sunnier than the former place. There's something about sunshine, even when it's bitterly cold. And at night I can see the stars, not cloud cover.

Maryn, also enjoying the cheese

 

[books_are_amazing]

I'm grateful for my fish because they make me feel a lot better when I feel down. They're also very fascinating to watch.
Here's a picture:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QvsYzDsk5YdzTyTMA
The "third fish" is actually just a reflection. I have two guppies. Adorable, am I right?

Also sorry, I just realized how bad quality my picture is.

 

[Maryn]

It's an old-fogey thing, I suppose. I have an old desktop that runs as well as it ever did (slow compared to my newer laptop) until recently, when something filled its hard drive completely. It couldn't update Windows or Dropbox. I spent hours trying to identify what was taking up all the space, and finally asked The Kid (our adult daughter) if she'd mess with it.

It took her about forty minutes. My 993 gigs full is now 215, with copies of copies of copies all gone, plenty of room for music, images, and more novels.

I'm so glad I had someone local who'd take the time.

Maryn, who gave her candy

 

[Chris P]

Grateful for time with friends today, and physical health to enjoy a nice long bike ride with them.

 

[CWNitz]

I'm grateful for my fish because they make me feel a lot better when I feel down. They're also very fascinating to watch.
Here's a picture:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QvsYzDsk5YdzTyTMA
The "third fish" is actually just a reflection. I have two guppies. Adorable, am I right?

Also sorry, I just realized how bad quality my picture is.

Nice to meet another fish enthusiast! I have a few simulans and pygmy corydoras.

Your guppies are very cute!

 

[StarsForScales]

Maryn, who gave her candy

Good on you for paying your techie appropriately!

It's been a busy transitional period here, so I haven't had much time to post (less than usual, even, to write), but Thanksgiving seemed like a good time to step back in. I helped the ladies at a seniors' co-op finish emptying and preparing their garden for the winter the other day, and it was glorious to be out in the brisk autumn air. Satisfying to see everything tidy, and I even managed to get their wilted behemoth of a zucchini plant into the dumpster without embarrassing myself. It was large enough that I had to drag it over there and could barely lift it with both hands, and one of the ladies had to hold the dumpster lid open with a garden fork so I could heave it over the edge. She gave a very genuine cry of 'Hurrah!' as I managed it, which just felt like an excellent, satisfying note on which to end the whole endeavour.

 

[Fi Webster]

TGIF fellow writers! I'm grateful today to be sporting leggings from Loony Legs (dot com).

 

[Maryn]

I had yet another college-mare, last one before I awoke kind of upset even as the dream dissolved. The parts I remember were that I'd borrowed Mr. Maryn's car to get to campus, but it was stolen from the parking lot. My backpack with my expensive textbooks was in it. I walked to my class, thinking I could still finish even without the book, only to find myself barefoot and the paths pea gravel. It began to rain.

So this morning's mindful gratitude is that I finished college long ago and uneventfully, Mr. Maryn's car is in the garage (I looked!), there are no expensive textbooks lost, and I have quite a few shoes even if something happened to the ones I'm wearing, and I have a place to shelter when it's raining.

Silly things to be grateful for--until you consider that plenty of homeless people once had cars, books they could sell, shoes, and a place to be out of the weather, and now they do not.

Maryn, reminding herself of her great good fortune

 

[Fi Webster]

I had yet another college-mare, last one before I awoke kind of upset even as the dream dissolved. The parts I remember were that I'd borrowed Mr. Maryn's car to get to campus, but it was stolen from the parking lot.

I have frequently recurring dreams that I'm walking the streets of a city or through an enormous parking lot, unable to find my car.

I think my car must signify ability to escape, to get to a safe place.

 

[Maryn]

For a time I lived in Boston, where there are more than 500 colleges in the area. I did not attend college there, but that's where my college-mares are always set. I was homeless in Cambridge this time.

I try not to assign meaning to dreams*, but the car representing a way out makes sense.

Maryn, who puts little stock in her dreams

*If dreams had meaning, then what the hell was the sex dream with Ted Danson, who does nothing for me?

 

[Fi Webster]

*If dreams had meaning, then what the hell was the sex dream with Ted Danson, who does nothing for me?

I'm a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist. My view is that the meaning of dreams is rarely found in a simple signifier in the manifest content. When I work with people's dreams in therapy, I ask them to free associate to the elements of the dream, then follow the associations wherever they lead. The dream itself is not the point. It's a just a jumping off point for exploring the psyche.

But free association is not a skill people automatically have: I first have to teach my patients (clients) how to do it.

That's a very shorthand answer. Don't want to bore you with more.

 

[Maryn]

(So it doesn't mean I have this secret thing for Mr. Danson. Whew! I'll stick with Keanu.)

 

[oneblindmouse]

I'm grateful for three days spent with family and friends.

 

[Maryn]

(We're grateful you got to do that.)

 

[Desiree Luca]

I'm very grateful that I got to chat with my best friend on the phone for a couple of hours today. It was so encouraging to pick back up where we'd left off a few weeks ago and just talk like we'd seen each other yesterday.

 

[StarsForScales]

My brain chemistry is starting to trip and careen into one of its usual crashes, so gratitude is a bit harder to reach for lately, but that is why I am making a point of doing so more deliberately.

I am grateful that, despite harvesting it quite late, I got a lot of rich, healthy leaves from my mint plant.

I am grateful to have friends with whom I can throw around story ideas, and a newly-discovered enjoyment of reading (and recording) stories aloud.

Related to that, I am grateful to feel more at home with my voice now the way it sounds outside my own head. I managed to go quite a few years without hearing much of it after transition, and it was a bit alarming at first. (Maybe the next step will be relearning how to sing without shaming the memory of Frank Sinatra!)

 

[Siri Kirpal]

Related to that, I am grateful to feel more at home with my voice now the way it sounds outside my own head.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I can relate to this, having had damage to my throat that makes singing difficult. (I trained for opera once upon a very long time ago.) I too have learned to be grateful. Among other things, I can still talk; I am not my voice; and being silent is not that hard for me.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

 

[MacAllister]

On day three of a widespread pacific NW power outtage -- I'm feeling profoundly grateful for investing in a propane fireplace, last year, so my 81 year old mom still has heat while I'm at work.

 

[mrsmig]

I'm having such an incredible rush of gratitude that:

1) my 101 year old mother, who had a bad fall back in mid-October, is recovering uneventfully at a decent skilled nursing facility in the town where she lives;
2) I was able to convince the big-city hospital where she was treated to let her have her follow-up appointment with her regular in-town PCP, rather than make the hour-long journey to the hospital and back;
3) I was able to schedule the follow-up appointment with her PCP for Wednesday;
4) my elder brother, who's always been the least willing to help out when there's a Mom emergency (and we've had several over the past six or seven years), has stepped up and is coming into town to escort her to said appointment;
4) the skilled nursing facility will provide a wheelchair van free of charge for the appointment, so Elder Bro doesn't have to deal with getting her in and out of his sedan.

This whole appointment thing has been a major monkey on my back for the past week, and I can breathe easier now that it's managed.

 

[Maryn]

Mac, that sounds pretty awful, but at least there's heat for you and your mom. I fear widespread outages are going to be more frequent and longer as our infrastructure ages.

mrsmig, hats off to your brother for stepping up to bat, and to the medical community for accommodating your mom's needs.

I'm glad you both have what you need.