Gratitude list for the beginning of 2014

1. My breathing, reading, writing, teaching, singing, coffee-drinking self.  I was going to put Maybelle first on the list, but I reminded myself of the oxygen mask philosophy that’s crucially important to my life and has been for more than a decade.  You have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then on your child.  If I’m not taking care of myself, I can’t help anyone else. Period.  

   

   Happy, happy, joy, joy!

2. My daughter.  I was going to list some of her many wonderful characteristics, but I realized her characteristics aren’t what “make me” love her.  She doesn’t have to earn my love.  I love her exactly as she is, and I’ll keep loving her, no matter what.
3. My friends and family.  I’ve blogged about them recently, so I’ll just point you there for a more detailed description.  Xoxoxoxo!
4. Sleeping.  Is that an appropriate thing to put on this list?  It’s true, though:  when I wake up and see that it’s 6:00, not 4:27, I’m grateful.  That means the day gets to start, and I don’t have to lie in bed thinking thinking thinking the toxic 4am thoughts that refuse to be rational and often fill me with adrenaline.  Okay, that wasn’t a great gratitude item—that seems more like a “Let’s get rid of this phenomenon!” item.  Moving on to a more appropriate gratitude item...
5. Looking backward and forward.  I'm grateful that I'm in a place right now of looking backward and forward in my life.  I've moved into this dramatic new phase.  In some ways it feels like adolescence--that kind of uncertainty and possibility.  But in adolescence I wasn't reflecting on the past, what I'd experienced and what I'd learned, what patterns I'd established and which ones I wanted to let go of, and I'm certainly doing that right now.  I don't yet have clarity on a lot of crucial issues.  It is, to quote myself from an earlier post, a fabulous mess, and I'm going to do my best to accept and be grateful for that.  
6. Silly.  This is Maybelle's highest compliment, and I do like it.  It helps to nudge me in a different direction than the direction I'm often going.

Thank you to Elizabeth Aquino for inspiring this post.