- Most people my age are suffering from various pains, illness or malady, I am thankful for the physical strength to follow the challenges and wonders life brings to me. And of course, SURF!
- Thankful for all the events in my life, good or bad, and the lessons they have taught me. When I was open to listen. Which is a lesson in itself.
- So thankful I have the writing skills that enable me to clearly communicate. Communication is the glue that binds all human interaction.
- Thankful for the presence to see the wonder and beauty in things that many take for granted: the chirp of a hummingbird, a bed of flowers, the softness of a pet's fur, the way the sun is captured by the morning dew, the rush of air as I walk through the world.
- Thankful I get up early, between 5-6 AM, and get to see the world unfold every day.
- Today I am thankful for UBUNTU. With so many conflicts in the world on global, local, and personal levels, if one thing can save humanity it is UBUNTU.
- My stepfather was a violent, cruel, ruthless, womanizing excuse for a human being. For years I thought nothing good came of his passing through the world. Eventually I realized there were many good things: I am thankful he taught me how to repair cars, to not be afraid of work or afraid to get my hands dirty, and most of all how to overcome adversity with persistence and the understanding that because the world says it's so doesn't mean it really is.
- America has gone astray and has many problems, but today I am thankful for the basic necessities unavailable to millions in the world: clean water for drinking and bathing, clothes, food, housing, and the simple freedom to choose.
- This one is actually #1 but saved it for today. I am thankful that my wife came into my life and we married 12 years ago today, on the day after we took possession of our home. We'd spent almost the entire night moving everything out of two houses and it all came together perfectly, as things that are meant to be always do. Past, present, and forever, looking forward to at least another 50 or so.
- Thankful for life. My own, yours, even the annoying ants that raid our house, argue all you wish of it's origin and nature, without it we wouldn't have the opportunity to do so.
- Today I am thankful for our planet Earth and our star, the sun. It's always amazed me how life managed to begin here, in the cold vacuum of the universe, with no concrete evidence of other living planets for billions of light years. We're all very lucky for the opportunity to experience it.
- Today I am thankful for my dog, Indiana. She is a polite, mellow (in her age) light Golden, who has lived far beyond her years but is nearing the end, I think. Sometimes I think she lingers on because she thinks it is her job to be here for us. I will really miss her when her time comes.
- Today I am thankful for all the authors, musicians, and artists that have inspired the epiphanies that changed my course in life. The list is long, some of them I don't even remember, but they've gotten me through the bad times and set me on fire in the good times. Rock on, you have changed the world!
- Today I am thankful I **understand** cats. There are cat people and dog people, I think I'm both, but cats have a special way about them that has a lot to teach us. It's good and important to love and share, but don't let that become your reason for being.
"The reason a lot of people don't like cats is probably because cats only let you interact with them on their terms. I learned everything I need to know or care about life dramas from cats. They have that shit down." - Today I am thankful for the spin of the Earth, currents, and wind that breathe waves to the ocean shores. Well, just about every day I'm thankful for that, but had to be said. :-)
- I am so thankful I've gotten through life without critically or fatally injuring another person, or been touched by unnatural death. We fly through the air at hundreds of miles and hour and over the roads in 3000 pound killing machines, and people die from these actions every day. Be thankful if fate has spared you this far.
- I am thankful for every day given to me and do my best to live it like it was my last. Today, and every day, I refuse to waste time obsessing over what's wrong with the world, I choose to celebrate all that is right.
- I am thankful I was finally able to learn the art of patience, with others, with life, with myself, after being impatient for so many years. Anything worthy of the experience requires patience - the next wave, life changes, love - petulant impatience only pushes what you hope to obtain further from your grasp.
- I am thankful I have a job. Like most people, there have been times in my life I've whined and bitched about how much it sucks to have to work, but the exchange of hours for income has always enabled many good things in life, some of them small, some of them significant, none of which would be possible without the opportunity to work.
- Thank you to all the volunteers and other generous souls who help humanity and make the world a better place. Yesterday I rode by a little gray haired woman, must have been 80, going up the street with a bag and a litter stick, picking up trash littered in the street. I called out "thank you!" as I rode by.
- Today I am thankful for the era in which I was born. I was there to see the first man land on the moon, the liberation and social change of the 60's, the birth and growth of the information age, and got to participate in it on many levels (although I'd really rather forget disco was part of that experience.) The only regret is the amount of real life interpersonal interaction we've lost in the process. (I remember gas at 19 cents per gallon.)
- I am thankful for all the people who are a part of my life, especially those that make an effort to be a part, and all the lessons they've taught me **about myself** (whether they know it or not.) Most of all my mother, often annoying (as mothers are) and forever forgiving (I was such a shit as a kid,) but always supportive and always there. After all, I've known her all my life.
- Of all my senses I am most thankful for sight and the experience of color. I've had a few friends born blind and their description of color is abstract. Color is not something that can be put into words without some comparative visual representation.
- Today I'd like to share my thanks for my 10th grade honors English teacher, Mr. Tobin. At the time I had no idea why I was in honors English, I had always struggled in school and was barely an average student. One of the first days in his class I was nodding off, he stopped the class and took me out in the hall. He told me that if I needed to sleep, I was to go home and sleep, but wasn't going to be allowed to insult his instruction or the rest of the class by sleeping HERE. Then he asked me to make the choice, right there, whether I wanted to participate in life or go home. As a child I was always told what to do, how to act, when to speak, when to be invisible, and he was the first person who showed me that I was in control of my own destiny. We went back into the classroom and he held my attention for the next two years. This was the most significant turn in my entire life and it will stay with me forever.
- I am thankful for the opportunities that present themselves every moment of every day and my ability to recognize and act on them, from the simple ones, like the choice to ride a bike to work rather than drive, to greater ones, like rising to a challenge when I am not sure if I'm ready for it. Opportunities are the invisible open doors that change your course in life, watch for them.
- Eventually we all slip and COMPLAIN. I don't do it often, but when I do, I take a step back and am thankful the things I complain about really aren't important in the wider scope of life. The ability to complain about the little things demonstrates how fortunate I am to not have to worry about really important things: health, sustenance, shelter, family, friends, love. Well, sometimes I complain about family . . . . still working on that. :-)
- When I was maybe 6 or 7, I distinctly remember the moment of self awareness and am thankful I still remember it. It was one of those endless summer days, I was outside playing and looked down at my hand, and for the first time actually **saw** the five fingers of my outstretched hand, miraculously connected to an arm, MY arm, which led to a body with a live beating heart inside. I remember looking up at the wind rustling through the trees over my head, and saw it was alive too, just like me. I realized that I was ALIVE, I was HERE, and aware of the world around me. I ran into the house and held my open hand up to my mom, "LOOK mom, I'm alive, I'm ALIVE!" She laughed like I was nuts and told me to get out of the kitchen. When things get tough, or even when they are awesome, I often look down at my open my right hand and savor that moment, many go through entire lives without realizing they're truly alive.
- I have always had a curiosity that probably started with my first car model build and developed into a need to know the mechanics of everything I see. I am thankful for that amazing gift, as it has led to an exceptional mechanical ability that applies to nearly every part of my working and playing life. I can fix almost anything, which has saved an amazing amount of money through the years, and it opens a world of play not available to most people, from radio controlled vehicles to patching a ding on my surfboard. :-) These abilities are not unique to me, everyone has them, the difference is the choices I made to act on them.
- There have been times in my life when all of my actions were driven by selfishness, and I am thankful I have finally grown beyond that. At these times I always had an airtight justification, told myself I "deserved" a thing, clung to a secret bitterness because I couldn't have something, but the reality was that I was closing the doors to all those things out of selfishness. When you realize there really is enough to go around, that there is an infinate supply of energy in the universe, focus on giving and sharing instead of fighting and wanting, everything you need just comes to you. It's not always everything you want, but it's usually more than you need.
- I am grateful for those transient serendipity moments that I'd have missed if I hadn't been exactly where I was. The time a seal swam under my board, rolled over and our eyes met, the times when dolphins swim in close out of curiosity, seeing pelicans sail along the edge of a rising wave, the tips of their feathers touching the lip like outstretched fingers. One of my favorites was at the Oregon Country Faire, a couple and a small child had stopped on a path and the mother pointed up at a monarch fluttering by. As the toddler raised his hand to point at the butterfly, it circled down and perched on his outstretched fingertips. His eyes grew wide with wonder, his mouth dropped open as the butterfly flapped it's wings a few times, then took flight. The little boy waved his hand and cried out "bye bye!" Wherever you are, right now, at this moment, this is where you are supposed to be, be aware, many gifts are available if you look for them.
Categories: About the Art
Add a Comment