The gratitude challenge

My Facebook friend, Dorothy Sander, invited me to take the five-day gratitude challenge and I accepted. That means for each of five days I need to post three things I’m grateful for and invite three people to join the challenge. This was a real challenge for me because I don’t normally think about my life in terms of gratitude – especially in a list. I’ve thought of benefits and gifts that have come my way. I also very much appreciate my family and friends who have stuck with me through some extremely tough times. So it’s not as though I’m ungrateful. I just found it hard to put the words down.

Even so, I have completed my list of fifteen. Three went up on my Facebook timeline yesterday, three went up today, and I will post the rest in the next three days.

My Grateful List 

1. For being with my godson Hugo and his brother Oscar and their mum and grandmum this morning. We got to show 4-year old Oscar the paleontology exhibit at the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. What a yeasty time.
2. For my health and ability to still go to the gym everyday to workout. It’s a great way to jump start my day.
3. For the four beta readers who reviewed my novel the last notes came in today. They have given me a huge amount of work to do and things to think about.  I’m grateful for having the book on the shelf for a while, so now I’ll have fresh eyes going back to it.
4. For the love of my husband of 44 years. The look of love in his eyes never ceases to warm my heart.
5. For where I live in Southern California. We have lived in the same house for 35 years a short walk from the beach. And I’ll be very grateful once we get a little rain.
6. For the skills I learned in the aerospace industry as a technical writer and editor and proposal manager. They helped prepare me for my new career as a creative writer.
7. For my extended family my nieces and nephews and their children my greats whom I adore. I look forward to seeing some of them very soon.
8. For Jeremiah who is working hard to fix my tinnitus through acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
9. For my weekly big long walks from my house to Manhattan Beach and along the beautiful Strand where I can see the ocean and so many interesting little gardens.
10. For the solitude of my home office where I can just shut my door and write as much of the day as I choose. When I’m not writing I can look out my window at the palms, my little fountain, and Buddha and Ganesh statues in my garden. This room contains my muse.
11. For the space my husband gives me to do my own thing. It is, I think, what keeps our marriage so strong. He also likes my cooking.
12. For the opportunities I have to go to my healing place Esalen in Big Sur California. It is my favorite place in the world.
13. For the gifts I’ve received as a result of my son’s death in 1999. Writing and having a memoir published was one of them.
14. For all my Facebook friends who have been so supportive of my grief and my writing. My writing groups and suicide survivors groups have been endlessly helpful.
15. That this challenge is at an end, though I will continue to be grateful for just living here one day at a time in good health and in a perfect place.

So please humor me. As you read this list, do you think I’ve thought of good things to be grateful for or am I just complying with the gist of the exercise. I truly thank Dorothy for asking me to think about gratitude. Please go to her wonderful site, Aging Abundantly, to learn more about her.