Thank you for the thought that I’d rather be vulnerable and risk playing a fool than to be “smart,” risk little, and protect my pride.

Thank you for all of us going through hard times together these days (rather than most or all of us going through hard times alone, as usual).

Thank you for a little taste of what it feels like to be displaced, especially by an event related to the climate crisis, because it helps me to relate a tiny bit to what many are going through and will go through all over the world.

Thank you for Trader Joe’s almond milk chocolate bars and for their vegetable gyoza (boiled until slippery).

Thank you for Peaches’ cuddliness.

Thank you for flax becoming linen becoming bed sheets.

Thank you for relational mindfulness.

Thank you for raindrops.

Thank you for happy elephant families.

Thank you for beautiful songs.

Thank you for beautiful human beings.

Thank you for strategies to relax.

Thank you for activities that don’t involve the use of screens or electronic devices.

Thank you for Moon’s sewing machine and the lessons learned through its use.

Thank you for Lula Mae the pothos, Verbena the dracaena, and Celeste the peace lily.

Thank you for humbling moments.

Thank you for friendships based on kindness rather than on superficial common interests or the exchange of resources.

Thank you for equanimity.

Thank you for chocolate banana smoothies.

Thank you for people who make a living helping people, and who care more about what they do than about what they get.

Thank you for how age and love can soften cantankerous personalities.

Thank you for when little things like silence and patience, maybe a few gentle questions here and there, prompt awareness in others that leads to transformation.

Thank you for times to speak out and times to listen, and for the glimmer of potential to discern the one from the other.

Thank you for when I have the awareness to realize that my mind is so confused that it’s better to remain silent.

Thank you for my future SO, who will have to be exceptionally understanding and patient to be with me, since some of my relationship ways are slightly stunted from having seen practice only long ago, before my wellness routines took hold.

Thank you for the capacities to learn and grow.

Thank you for my love of independence and alone time taming my needy, clingy sides.

Thank you for when facing our own insecurities helps others realize and acknowledge theirs.

Thank you for indirect communication.

Thank you for misunderstandings that gradually push communication forward and ultimately bring people closer.

Thank you for direct communication.

Thank you for how, with certain situations, I’m much better at one small step at a time than I am at diving in head first (although I try to force myself to dive into deep ends).

Thank you for the realization that I still try too hard to please others, from insecurities, rather than choosing what is best for me, and that doing so still makes situations worse, and that it’s not a fatal flaw, and that there are alternative options.

Thank you for love, less as a feeling and more as an action.

Thank you for love as a feeling and a doing, that’s more valuable than material wealth.

Thank you for long distance friendships.

Thank you for when Julie texts just to tell me she loves me.

Thank you for loving friendships.

Thank you for unconditional acceptance of the present and the future, even of so-called natural disasters and total failure.

Thank you for moments of clarity that come with fasting, meditation, and prayer.

Thank you for “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Thank you for the men and women who draw out the deep water.

Thank you for time and space to think.

Thank you for the human capacity to give the benefit of the doubt and use the principle of charity.

Thank you for comfort with ambiguity.

Thank you for the understanding that we don’t understand.

Thank you for vegan dog food.

Thank you for healthy dogs, unaware that they’re vegan, simply enjoying their meals.

Thank you for the anchor of daily routines that keeps wellness from drifting out of sight.

Thank you for memories of entering a crowded grocery store with a naked face and touching items on the shelves with reckless abandon.

Thank you for memories of being affectionate with strangers, like on my birthday last year when I decided to gift random people with hugs.

Thank you for memories of sweating in the sauna.

Thank you for how appetizing Veggie Grill seems now that it’s out of reach.

Thank you for burritos with French fries inside and hot sauce on every bite.

Thank you for the stereotype that Californians love avocados.

Thank you for baby steps leading to a tiny house.

Thank you for the opportunity to move back “home,” tempered with awareness that home is wherever I choose love and seek purpose.

Thank you for persistence.

Thank you for patience.

Thank you for promises of greater independence.

Thank you for scents of plants while out on walks.

Thank you for clean toilets.

Thank you for warm water.

Thank you for coyote sitings on bike rides.

Thank you for all of us beings on this planet together.

Thank you for small footprints.

Thank you for secondhand shopping online.

Thank you for used trainers.

Thank you for the sounds that animals make in the wild.

Thank you for the sounds that children make in backyards, especially when a swimming pool is involved.

Thank you for gargoyles.

Thank you for old architecture still intact.

Thank you for World War II documentaries and books.

Thank you for the unconventional life and love of Virginia Hall.

Thank you for courage to do the right thing in the face of grave consequences.

Thank you for small habits that build noble character.

Thank you for when I lighten up.

Thank you for the hardware that holds up shelves and such.

Thank you for vegan mammoul.

Thank you for time to recover from a draining office job.

Thank you for shampoo bars that actually work.

Thank you for funnies.

Thank you for the guy who almost hit me in the crosswalk, driving while on his cellphone, because he was so apologetic about it.

Thank you for drivers who make efforts to give pedestrians and cyclists their due right of way.

Thank you for the warmth and satisfaction of talking with strangers when you’ve been deprived of social interaction.

Thank you for body lotion.

Thank you for electrolyte drinks.

Thank you for Candide.

Thank you for cricket chirps.

Thank you for the practice of showing love every day with those around us.

Thank you for the possibility of a restful night.

Thank you for when there is clear headspace to think.

Thank you for when there is stability.

Thank you for our capacity to see others’ points of view, or at least to realize that those points of view are very different from what we may assume them to be.

Thank you for a village of caring family and friends.

Thank you for everything being ok even if it’s not ok.

Thank you for the happier days.

Thank you for the peaceful days.

Thank you for hunger when there is food available.

Thank you for another safe ride.

Thank you for deluges of love and confusion.

Thank you for when head spins slow down.

Thank you for desert sunsets.

Thank you for the feeling of being soaked in gentle heat and light.

Thank you for musical instruments.

Thank you for real life ghost stories shared by people who don’t believe in ghosts.

Thank you for learning new languages.

Thank you for love languages.

Thank you for languages of love.

Thank you for faith in the capacity to learn and understand.

Thank you for clean laundry.

Thank you for the smell of tea tree oil.

Thank you for crispy, crunchy, and chewy.

Thank you for singing birds on morning walks.

Thank you for online bill pay.

Thank you for heart emojis.

Thank you for the impermanence of tan lines.

Thank you for feelings of freedom.

Thank you for more freedom as a woman here and now than in other places and at other times.

Thank you for people whose vision of a just future inspires actions to realize that future.

Thank you for the orange line, and for all of the friendly exchanges between strangers on its buses.

Thank you for every single person on earth speaking a (sometimes slightly) different language. Thank you for how each of us tries to translate what we hear others say, so that we understand it in our own personal language. Thank you for how we also try to translate what we think or feel from our personal language into a shared language that others will understand.

Thank you for the art of communication.

Thank you for tahini sauce.

Thank you for pleasing color combinations.

Thank you for accordions and for those who play them.

Thank you for polka dots.

Thank you for whimsy.

Thank you for soundproof rooms.

Thank you for bathroom fans.

Thank you for overwhelming gifts.

Thank you for fana and baqa.

Thank you for full journal pages.

Thank you for women who run businesses, like Elyse at Minimaliste.

Thank you for us humans supporting each other through life.

Thank you for (r)evolutions in consciousness.

Thank you for mystics. Thank you for laborers. Thank you for mystics who are also laborers.

Thank you for Rumi.

Thank you for when the temperature in the room is just right without any help from AC, fan, or heat.

Thank you for the many shapes that pasta comes in and for the cute names attached to those shapes.

Thank you for that feeling of being clean inside from eating whole plant foods, exercising, and staying hydrated.

Thank you for epic love stories.

Thank you for men with the courage to be vulnerable in a society that discourages it.

Thank you for another stereotype: the confidence of French women to age gracefully with style.

Thank you for the beauty of differences and the vibrance of cultures.

Thank you for a heart that is falling back into a smooth rhythm after a period of instability..

Thank you for beginnings.

Thank you for Sister being in a good mood today.

Thank you for my being easy on myself even though I kind of feel like I’ve been letting me down lately.

Thank you for refugees who are able to rebuild their lives in peace.

Thank you for belly buttons—for how cute they can be.

Thank you for the mood lift that comes with watching Tabitha Brown videos.

Thank you for serious (positive) impacts of humor.

Thank you for when devices and gadgets function as intended.

Thank you for nightgowns.

Thank you for nightstands.

Thank you for how there are words to denote things that belong to the night, as though that time of day is a distinct realm with its own dedicated objects and creatures.

Thank you for peaceful nights that lead to happy mornings that carry over to productive days that roll back out to peaceful nights. 

Thank you for if the power of suggestion causes the above cycle to apply to you.

Thank you for anyone other than myself who somehow may benefit from something shared here.