Hidy ho, folks. 😊
And a happy, joyful, gratitude-filled new year to you! 🙂
Isn’t life amazing? High highs. Low lows. Plains, slopes, hills, mountains, cliffs, valleys, deserts, forests, jungles, prairies, tundra and more… both of the soul and of the land.
Some days I’m so excited to live and make a difference for good in the world.
Other days I just almost want to die. …tired of the struggle, tired of… not having the things I want most.
Attitude. Perspective. Choice.
That’s what it comes down to in a lot of ways. I get to choose how I feel. I get to choose how I act as events unfold in my life. I get to choose what I believe and how I move forward.
So, on this day of new beginnings, I’m grateful to have had a lighter day, lighter in my heart. I’m grateful to have been able to be more grateful. I’m grateful to have had more love and tenderness and patience and kindness in my heart.
That’s one of the things that I’m working toward for this new year, as I mentioned in my updated home page that I just barely finished just a handful of minutes ago.
I’m excited for this year. It’s going to be amazing. Even if the world falls apart around me, this is gonna be an amazing year. It might sound cheesy, but this year is going to be my favorite year of all the years I’ve lived to this point, and I’m excited about it. 😀
Bring.
It.
On.
Hell on one side. Heaven on the other. And likely me bouncing back and forth experiencing them both. What a privilege. What an experience.
Bring. It. On.
So… yeah. Happy Friday. Happy first day of this amazing year. 😊 Look in the mirror. You’re wonderful. Come, join the party. Love to have you. 😊
As far as the day went today:
#1. I’m grateful to be sick, to be reminded of the people out there who have physical bodies that don’t ever get feeling good again, people who live in a perpetual state of feeling sick. How grateful I am that, at least at this point in my life, such is not the case. May I be mindful of those whose life’s circumstances are not as comfortable as mine in that area.
#2. I’m grateful to have been able to get my updated home page done. I ended up pressed for time, it taking a lot longer than… well… it always takes a long time, so I can’t say it was longer than expected. It was just… long. But I’m grateful I was able to get that down, think about all those things that I wrote about, etc.
#3. I’m grateful for journals, and searchable ones. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be trying to figure out when something happened and to just be able to search my own website, find the journal entry that talks about that, and know when it was (case in point, when I switched from my Subaru to my mom’s Durango. I needed that info for tax purposes, and… I had a journal entry that talked about my Subaru blowing up. Yay! Sooooo nice!)
#4. I’m grateful for my wonderful mother for taking such good care of me. She’s 75. I’m supposed to be taking care of her, no? Right. Nope. She does a much better job taking care of me than I do of her. Hopefully, I’ll get better. But thanks, mom!
#5. I’m grateful that I’ve had such good luck with my own cars. Very rarely have my cars given me serious trouble. Or at least, so it feels to me. They just seem to go and go and go. I’ve often sort of considered it karma. I’ve tried to help people on the side of the road whose cars break down, and I just sort of look at my cars just going and going and going as karma coming around. Whatever it is, I’m grateful.
#6. I’m grateful that though I feel sick, it’s manageable. I’ve been taking cold medicine, and it’s helped a lot, and I’m grateful. Normally, I don’t like taking medicines. Among other things, I don’t want to rob myself of the experience of feeling nasty. I think it’s healthy to suffer, to help us remember what it’s like, so we can be more sensitive and compassionate. It’s easy to get spoiled, complacent, and judgmental surrounded by so much comfort and ease. I’m grateful when life gets hard and uncomfortable, painful, etc. But today, I’ll be grateful for the cold medicine to dull the icky that wears me down with so much on my plate right now.
#7. I’m grateful to see changes in my heart as I look at things that were hard for me starting to change, ways I’ve seen things. Looking outward with more loving, accepting, compassionate, eyes.
#8. I’m grateful for my new homepage picture. I smile, and sometimes laugh, when I look at it. 😊
It’s time for me to go to bed, folks. Thanks, for joining me for another year. Let’s make it amazing, eh? 😊
Love this Thought of the Day: “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin
Loves and hugs.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
p.s. 19 days. 😊
p.p.s. And as far as the day went, just a little chronology. Spent the morning getting David going and trying to do better with my morning routine. I made good progress in that effort. Still a decent ways to go, but I made progress. David did… I think four or five cars, and I did two. Harder to do cars while sick, but I did them nonetheless. Came home at a good hour, spent a lot of time writing blog stuff, and here I am. 10:22. Waaaaaaay past my bed time, but better journaling today. Trade off. We’ll get there. One of these days. 😊
Lift the World 
Happy New Year!