Gratitude Journal #1

 Here I am in Vancouver, August 4th, 2023. I'll be 40 years old in 12 days. Damnnnnnn. Where have the last 20 years gone? An easy thing to say -- to just write off the last 20 years like nothing's happened in them. Like I've accomplished nothing. Done nothing. Met no one new. Not really lived.

But actually, I have done those things. And I realize it when I think about things I'm grateful for.

But today I'm just focusing on this morning. I've only been up for a couple hours, but I can already think of at least three things I'm grateful for. 

I'm grateful for the cold brew sitting on the table next to me, how it's stimulating me. The nice cafe experience getting it, the landscaping dude who was chatting up the baristas. The fact that afterward he went outside and said to some older guys, "That's a mighty big umbrella." And they said to him, "And that's a mighty big oak tree. That's why this place is called The Mighty Oak."

I'm grateful for the GeoGuessr duels I've won this morning. Reading a sign and seeing the word Yucatan and knowing just where in the world to guess. Seeing Swedish road lines and recognizing them. Seeing a sign that just says the first half of the word Coyhaique (Coyh--) and knowing to guess in southern Chile. I'm grateful for all I've learned from GeoGuessr. 

Finally I'm grateful for planning ahead, the fact that I'm already mobilizing as if going to Squamish even though I don't know if I'm going to Squamish today. But if we go, I want to be prepared. And if we don't go, we'll probably go tomorrow, and I need to be prepared for that too. Being proactive about it makes me feel good. 

These are easy things to be grateful for. The real wonder of gratitude lies in finding things you're grateful for about situations that seem bad on the surface. A breakup. An injury. A tough situation at work. Can you find things you're grateful for even in those situations? This is the great secret.