Day 16: Love

I am so profoundly grateful for love.

Day 15: When the Storm Breaks

Today is the first day I've really struggled to come up with some gratitude. Not surprising given the events of the day, but I'm disappointed in myself.

I guess what I do have to be grateful for is that the humidity finally broke. Which reminds me, if I am wise enough to listen, that all storms break at some point. All humidity breaks. The worst things we go through do not go on forever; they just seem interminable as we are wrestling through them.

Hemingway said, "The world breaks all of us, and afterwards, some are stronger at the broken places." A broken place is a place where growth is possible.

I am thankful for the cracks, and the breaks, because they mark endings. But they also mark beginnings, and give us a tiny space to grow from - if we're just tenacious enough.

Day 14: Orange Lilies, Raymond Carver, and Poet Friends

(who do not know they are poets and those who know they are...)

Today I came across these delightful orange lilies, and Carver. In rereading Raymond Carver's All of Us, I came across this quotation from Czeslaw Milosz, cited by fellow poet and Carver's wife Tess Gallagher: "When it hurts we return to the banks of certain rivers."

Then I come upon this fragment: "Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
Any early morning talk about it."
-Happiness by Ray Carver

And I am thankful too for meeting friends from different walks of life, not trying to make them best friends, but truly good friends, and for one who asked me the question, "So what do you need? Shall I give you permission to go after your own happiness?"

How delightful the alignment of Ray Carver, the poet of ordinary things put in extraordinary phrases, and my friend who is a poet, unrealizing.

Day 13: Paulo Coelho and the miracle of technology

I recently joined Twitter, to push myself to try something new, but also because it's allegedly how bloggers make it big.

I follow Paulo Coelho, because his book The Alchemist is one of my go-to books when I'm struggling.

He wrote today, "Bless and you will be blessed."

It got me thinking how I should just go forth and do good, and not wait for it to come to me. So today I am thankful for tweet-inspiration and Paulo Coelho.

You can find Coelho's Twitter here and his blog here.

Day 12: Calves

I have some great calves. Today I ran a 10k. It was supposed to be this one but when I woke up sick, I wasn't able to make it. I've been training for two and a half months to run this 10k though, so I forced myself to do a 10k - albeit alone - later in the day. I'm proud to say that today, I ran a 9.8 minute mile for the 6.22 miles (10k). When I did my last 10k in October, I ran a 10.39.

I improved my time and I ran under a 10-minute mile, which was my goal. I am pretty geeked about it! And thankful for my calves, for enduring the training and for carrying me forward today.

Day 11: Brooklyn in the Summer

Today, Saturday, I am grateful for concerts in Prospect Park, bike riding in Brooklyn, and spending time with friends over cold beers on gently warm June nights.

Day Ten - Kitten Paws

I am grateful for kittens who cross their paws.




OK, so maybe he's not a kitten anymore.

Day Nine - Best Friends and Baklava

Today I'm grateful for best friends (who always help you find your way) and (free) baklava.

Day Eight - the Brooklyn Bridge

Photo from Wikipedia


I go over the bridge, taking the N or D train, so that I can see the Brooklyn Bridge twice a day. It is so beautiful. There is something incredibly gorgeous and majestic about the Brooklyn Bridge (or maybe I just like bridges in general?). This view lifts my spirits...so every day that I live here, I look at it.



Photo from NY Portraits blog

Day Seven

I am grateful for air travel - and to be safely home!

Day Six

Today (Monday) I went on a work meeting to the de Young Museum.

It was really exciting to be around a group of really amazing artists and museum staff who are committed to shaking things up. It was a profoundly inspiring experience for which I'm totally grateful.

Day Four & Five (Traveling) Joint Post - but lots of gratitude!

photo from jrodmanjr on flikr

Because I have been traveling, I am posting double days - I actually wasn't on my computer at all yesterday. It was quite lovely.

Yesterday: I am thankful for Leslie, Alex, Berna, Maegan, Becky, Stephen, Vernon, Lucas & Nolan. I am thankful for Leslie who drove me to LA because it was what I needed to do and because we got to talk to each other the whole way.

I am thankful for Alex and Berna because they have been my best friends for so long, who show no signs of flagging, who love me for who I am, and who support me fully, wholly, completely.

I am thankful for Maegan, who is a lovely friend, and who continues to amaze me with her quiet laughter and generous spirit.

I am thankful for Becky and Stephen, because they love Berna and Alex respectively, are solid partners to them, and make my dear friends happy.

I am thankful for Lucas and Nolan, Berna and Becky's sons, because Berna and Becky are exactly the kind of people who should be having kids.

I am thankful for Vernon, who I have known forever, but who I have gotten to know more in recent years and I am enjoying our friendship so much. Some people are just really good souls, and Vernon is one of these.

I am thankful and grateful and completely love the family that I have chosen.

For today:
The picture above is where Leslie and I went running today. I am grateful for long runs in the sunshine with my dear friend. And most importantly I am grateful for mild California temperatures and no East Coast humidity.

I am also thankful for the family I was born into - namely my dad (Happy Father's Day). My dad is brilliant, funny, and the kindest man I know. I love you Dad.

Day Three - The Gratitude Project

Today, I am incredibly thankful to be California-bound. While some summer rain delayed me by about three hours, I am en route now. I am thankful for friends who are as dear and beloved and committed as family - and for any time I can spend in California.

Day Two - The Gratitude Project

Day Two!
Today I am grateful for being able to lunchtime walks in a New York summer.

Here are some the delights I passed by:



The apartment above the right-most door has used the stoop to grow plants on - an extended windowsill! Props for inventiveness! (Sorry the quality is so bad, I'm using my phone. I'll upgrade for you loyal readers to a real camera soon, promise).



A fountain in Marcus Garvey Park, refreshing and enticing on a hot summer day.



Delicious helados! If you can't read it, the flavors include "coco," "blue," and "chery."

And an absolutely lush little garden, remarkable for 20 sq feet, and proof you can make any space beautiful if you really try:



I have to say - this has already started to work. I went out today searching for beauty, and because I was looking for it, I found more of it.

Day One - The Gratitude Project

Today I am launching the Gratitude Project. Given some events in my life, I have been a bit down lately, and I don't want to get down. So to help me focus on the good things, and to help me seek out beautiful and wonderful things, I am going to share one beautiful, interesting, funny or awesome thing with you, my faithful readers, every day for the rest of 2011. Here's what I saw today, June 15, 2011: the Harlem Green Thumb garden, in full blossom, on 122nd Street at St Nick's.