2014: a year of gratitude

365 days of Gratitude

I have just had the luxury of time off work, and I am just beginning to feel a little less tired, a little more rejuvenated. I am so grateful for this time of peace, and I have been thinking about gratitude a lot and have decided to devote some space in the blog to record each day, one thing that I am grateful for. I know Gratitude is good for me, and I would like to spread it around.
 

January 1: I am grateful for holidays

When it gets to the end of the year, I am generally exhausted and rung out, so this year I decided to take nearly three weeks off and I am just now starting to feel the benefits. Yes, I wish for more time, yes I wish I didn't have to worry about making money, but I am so grateful to have had this time to read, to sleep, to dream, to rest, to catch up with friends and family and to relaxxxx...

January 2: I am grateful for “The Hunger Games” trilogy

Wow, what a fabulous Christmas present this was. I haven't read this avidly since "Famous Five go to Smuggler's Top", about oooh...a hundred years ago. I love reading and in the last six months have not been doing very much reading for pleasure. This is classic holiday reading - a real page turner, an easy read, with a brave young woman as hero, plenty of action and exploration of the grand themes of life: love, hate, death, war, power, corruption, humanity, kindness and greed.

 

January 3: I am grateful for water

I am no great shakes as a swimmer, even though I learned to swim freestyle while attending primary school in bay side Melbourne. What I think they neglected to tell me is that you have to actually breathe out when your head goes back under the water. I discovered a year or two ago, while training for a novice triathlon that I hold my breath when I swim causing me to tire incredibly quickly - usually after about 5 metres I have found. And now that my neck is creaky and complaining, I find it hard to turn my head, and I usually get a mouthful of water instead of air .  Then I discovered backstroke, and am learning to swim languidly and slowly, meditatively, letting the water hold me and teaching myself not to struggle, cos I can breathe this way!

January 4: I am grateful for the gift of my niece and my daughter

I have known these two, well, since they were babies, and now they can vote, and drink and drive and do all manner of very grown up things!  They are funny and wise, and clever and talented, they  get outraged and defensive, distracted and focussed,and they can be sweet, and tough, and they enrich my life greatly.

 
 
January 5: I am grateful for time and space to write

My beautiful partner has done the lion's share of work these last few weeks so I can rest and recover, enabling me to do one of the things I love best.  Jack Kerouac advised in his "Rules for Modern Prose" that we should keep "secret scribbled notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy". I have resolved to remember that there is joy in writing even if we write to, as Anais Nin advised ..."descend, to excavate, to go underground".

 

January 6: I am grateful for my physiotherapist

My physio, Cathy, is skilled, thoughtful and knowledgeable. She has been looking after my creaky neck, my messy meniscus and pesky pelvis for quite a few years now. I always feel cared for and know I am "in good hands" when I am treated by her.