If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude - Suzuki Roshi -

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

What are you grateful for today?

This morning I had a test at Lutheran Hospital then walked to Talkies and had coffee and a bagel. I observed with gratefulness the following:
1. The love of my wife who got in the car in her pjs and drove me to the hospital.
2. The crescent moon in the southern sky.
3. A security guard who greeted me and talked about the "old days" in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.
4. A radiology technician who explained everything possible to me and answered my questions with friendliness.
5. An adult woman with Downs Syndrome who flashed me a 1.5 second smile in passing.
6. The rising sun reflected on downtown buildings.
7. The beginning of a BEAUTIFUL March day in Cleveland!
8. The ever present smile of Kate at Talkies.
9. The joy that listening to U2 brings me.
10. My deep fondness for my two children, both of whom are out of town for spring break right now.
11. My freedom to write anything I desire on this blog and the freedom of all bloggers, writers and journalists in this country. (A 22 year old Egyptian was just sentenced to 4 years in prison for "insulting Islam and Egypt's president.")
12. Did I mention the joy that listening to U2 brings me?

All this was just in the first hour out the door. How much more will the day present me if I am willing to be aware and awake to it?

What are you grateful for this minute?

4 comments:

George Nemeth said...

Welcome, Mark.

http://www.brewedfreshdaily.com/2007/03/14/a-variation-on-tiwidt/

See http://www.wendellrobinson.com/TIWIDT/ for reference.

Unknown said...

...for you recognition that we all have something to be grateful for.
w
http://wendellrobinson.com/TIWIDT/2007/03/14/some-provoking-thoughts/

Tim Ferris said...

a while back, sometime in the '60s, I clipped a headline from a high-end magazine and kept it tacked on my wall for years and years; it read: "Thank God you have teeth." Sort of heavy.

Paul Sunstone said...

A friend of mine once experienced a very deep and protracted depression, during which his emotions narrowed to a very few. When he finally began to come out of the depression, he noted one day that he was feeling gratitude for the food he had -- and then found himself grateful to feel gratitude.