Thank you for AV texting me from Seminole that it was such a beautiful day, she felt like she was on vacation. Then she wrote, “You’re going to love it here.” Her happiness made me happy. Her assurance revived optimism.
Thank you for time away from home being temporary, so I may as well enjoy it here.
Thank you for Pink Moon today under a pink sky and then for Purple Haze a few songs later just as the pink clouds darkened. Do you ever feel like songs on shuffle are trying to tell you something? It reminds me of rolling down the driveway, car loaded up Woolsey morning, when the shuffle landed on Wander (Trevor Hall).
Thank you for sumo buns (the kind worn on the head).
Thank you for dogpile therapy.
Thank you for lighthearted giggles.
Thank you for coincidences that keep popping up.
Thank you for discovering that a (not-so-popular?) French movie I’ve been wanting to watch is available on a platform I hadn’t thought to check.
Thank you for the grasshoppers that bumped my leg and arm on the way into Smith’s with a box of bags to recycle.
Thank you for thoughts on where I’ll be this time next week. Maybe in a big reclining seat shifting to a comfier position. Or settled in and reading a new-used Laura Lynne Jackson book. Daydreaming (or nightdreaming). Wiping “long day” oil from my forehead. Looking at reflections in the window…Washing down Frooze Balls with coconut water…Trying to pee with zero direct toilet contact…IDK…Some of it might be kind of fun.
Thank you for a deer park birthday.
Thank you for another humbling health blip to highlight the importance of hydration and electrolytes.
Thank you for how rewarding it can feel to look into people’s eyes.
Thank you for the colors in neighbor R’s paintings of fruit, a volcano, and the border at Tijuana, especially. Thank you for garage art and artists.
Thank you for caring neighbors.
Thank you for caring first responders.
Thank you for alfalfa sprout mustaches.
Thank you for a dream that helped me to explore a fear. It had to do with what an Elliott Smith song described: “I’m waiting for something that’s not coming.” Some of us may be waiting for something that may not be coming. But we also are not waiting for other things that are coming, beautiful gifts we couldn’t have imagined or wouldn’t have thought to ask for.
Thank you for unexpected life directions.
Thank you for all that happens “in the meantime,” when we’re caught up waiting or hoping.
Thank you for gifts without price tags exchanged.
Thank you for NB and GQ—for NB’s gifts to GQ.
Thank you for Nat King Cole songs.
Thank you for wonderful happenings, and even challenges, that bring out better versions of ourselves.
Thank you for light, chipper conversation while painting the little library with M and B.
Thank you for everyday celebrations of itty bitty victories. The thought came from reading Tiny Habits. I don’t read that kind of thing much lately but it’s on the reading list (along with Transforming Trauma) for the program that starts this September. And it is packed with insights that resonate with experience.
For instance, the author shares that if you learn one thing from his book, he hopes it is to celebrate your tiny successes: “This one small shift in your life can have a massive impact even when you feel there is no way up or out of your situation.” So let’s celebrate our tiny successes throughout each day!
Later in the book, he says that “success leads to success”—no matter the size of success you start with. The trick when in a bind is to aim tiny. Aim for the smallest, most doable achievements. And celebrate them—even if it’s just with silent congrats to self. Those little victories will grow. They’ll multiply.
Thank you for unexpected joys and tiny successes. I wish them on you in abundance <3