Thank you for make-out sessions with Peaches. 

Thank you for the dog cookie recipe from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken blog.

Thank you for the dog food recipe from the Jane Unchained site.

Thank you for Peaches’ excitement when her dinner and treats are cooking.

Thank you for messages from afar showing us how fortunate we are. 

Thank you for the uncertain luxury of time.

Thank you for friends who bring music into each other’s lives.

Thank you for tears and laughter.

Thank you for when I try to focus on how I live my life instead of focusing on how others live theirs.

Thank you for awareness of the health benefits of food motivating healthier choices.

Thank you for bike repair shops being essential.

Thank you for humbling ailments, like the tendency for my face to swell up every once in a while when it doesn’t like something. Thank you for Eric on the bike trip advising me to visit urgent care when I had unusually puffy features. If he hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have gone. Thank you for when he joked that it reminded him of the Nutty Professor. It wasn’t a mean joke and it still makes me laugh to think about it.

Thank you for healing.

Thank you for the mask mandate preventing illness. Also, sometimes it’s nice to hide warm and protected. 

Thank you for allergy pills as a last resort instead of a doctor.

Thank you for big glasses of water before long morning walks.

Thank you for trusting relationships.

Thank you for freedom of speech. Thank you for a free press.

Thank you for responsibilities that come with freedoms.

Thank you for Lesley Fightmaster’s yoga videos helping to keep so many of us balanced and to move us nearer to our centers. Thank you for her kindness and optimism, for her gentle voice and the inspiration and wisdom she shared. Thank you for her gifts lifting me up through the years.

Thank you for spiritual leaders masquerading as everyday people who transform lives from the inside out.

Thank you for when we exchange love and gratitude with beings while they are still with us.

Thank you for those who give the best of themselves freely to anyone in need. Thank you for true gifts that instead of feeding desires build health. 

Thank you for noble professions and their practitioners. 

Thank you for reminders that life is fragile and temporary, of how precious it is.  

Thank you for the Inner French and some of the Rich Roll podcasts. 

Thank you for vegan bloggers and youtubers sharing information, recipes, and inspiration. They help readers and viewers to make healthier choices, to live more kindly, and to feel like we are not alone in our less mainstream lifestyle.

Thank you for revolutionaries at the forefront of change (like Greta) who start out lonely but persist to draw influence.

Thank you for expressive looks, ones that talk without saying words.

Thank you for male friends who are respectful.

Thank you for food banks.

Thank you for blood banks.

Thank you (again) for when I feel overwhelmed and unproductive, but instead of getting angry and making it worse, I try to have compassion. Then it seems to take less time before picking back up again.

Thank you for sunlight reflecting off puddles.

Thank you for the spectrum of feels evoked by different light sources.

Thank you for the sky’s “landscape” altering the mood of the earth’s landscape.

Thank you for when my phone lying quietly on the table decided to play a song (Keep On Smilin’).

Thank you for friends in touch over the holidays.

Thank you for friendly ghosts who inflame hearts.

Thank you for nightly rituals.

Thank you for new weeks and fresh chances.

Thank you for time and resources to prepare for a major shift. Thank you for much to do in preparation, because it’s a good problem to have.

Thank you for the thought (again, this time hopefully more impactful) that I have to advocate for my needs because no one else can or will do so in my place. (Who are they to know what my needs are if I leave them unexpressed?) Thank you for that insight motivating slightly more assertiveness.

Thank you for Excedrin.

Thank you for excuses to spend all day in the kitchen.

Thank you for rosemary clipped fresh.

Thank you for friends’ parties where I could help out behind the scenes so I didn’t have to socialize or feel awkward and guilty for not socializing. Thank you for gatherings with purpose beyond the social, because they can feel more comfortable socially.

Thank you for personalities to fit all sorts of occasions.

Thank you for countless ways to do good.

Thank you for less anxiety these days when it’s time to pay bills. 

Thank you for pecan raisin bread. Even if it’s popular to hate on raisins, they’re a-okay by me.

Thank you for everybody who works to keep society running smoothly and its inhabitants healthy and comfy. 

Thank you for caregivers. 

Thank you for prayers we’ve prayed when we were too young to understand what prayer is.

Thank you for how being corrected when I was overconfident of being right gave a good lesson. It was a reminder to ask questions rather than assume answers, to use a gentle tone of voice rather than one that’s too self assured. Like TNH urges, we should ask, “Are you sure?” The more I remember to ask myself that question, the less my arrogance will need to be checked by external circumstances.

Thank you for when we remember during our best (or better) times that they are someone else’s worst (or worse) times.

Thank you for when we think to share and help.

Thank you for when we practice equanimity.

Thank you for Chris (handyman) fixing the gate so that it easily opens and closes without scraping.

Thank you for face lotion.

Thank you for dogs in turtleneck sweaters.

Thank you for the jogger who stops to say “hi” on her morning workout. Thank you for her remembering Peaches’ name and calling out to her this morning.

Thank you for government relief efforts that keep lives afloat.

Thank you for everyone who donates and volunteers during difficult times.

Thank you for Red Cross shelters.

Thank you for firefighters.

Thank you for how more of us being touched personally by tragedy and hardship means a surge of compassion.

Thank you for pear upside-down cakes, for upside-down cakes of all sorts.

Thank you for the wisdom that our dreaming selves share with our waking selves.

Thank you for when two dreaming selves seem to connect.

Thank you for when if feels like there is no hurry.

Thank you for painters, dancers, musicians, poets… all the folks dedicated to making “non-essential” stuff, who sacrifice to do so.

Thank you for love.