Today I am grateful. Grateful for many things, many of which I take for granted. Hell, on any given day I might take all of 'em for granted. But not on this day. Today I will put forth by best effort to be mindful of things normally taken for granted on a regular basis - and not just by me, but by everyone. Everyone that is, but those who may not have such things in their daily life - and there are indeed people out there in this world who do not know some of these things, perhaps all of them.
I had a good night's sleep on 400 (estimated) thread count bed sheets on my bed which is comfortable & layered with an adequate & comfortable offering of blankets for warmth. I can add more to said layers if I deem necessary. This time of the year, I do not. You've undoubtedly heard the saying cooler than the other side of the pillow. Highly desirable many times during the course of a good night's sleep, I can find this several times over every single night - I don't even think about it, until a day like today comes along.
I woke up in a comfortable bed that is my own, rather than that of a hospital where I could be waiting for a doctor or a nurse to come in with various & sundry procedures, tests, results or questions. With a roof over my head and to the sounds of birds chirping and a neighbor taking their dog outside - instead of somewhere far away in a war zone where any and all of what I'm thankful for could easily be destroyed our outright taken away from me in some unpleasant manner. So there's that to be thankful for.
Then there's my cat, who is always glad to see me emerge from my sleep. Charming as her enthusiastic purrs may be, I can see through it enough to realize that what she's really happy about is being fed - at least first off. She may - or being a cat, may not seek various amounts of favorable attention after her first order of business - and she usually does. Pets are a joy in this life, and while I spent years being a dog person and I miss having a good dog these days, I'm thankful for the peace & quiet version of pet ownership my cat provides. The things she does that annoy me are much less abrupt and they don't piss off my neighbors. Usually I interpret her running up & purring at my feet to mean "Oh my GAWD, I am SO happy to see you!!", but I need to face the reality that it may actually mean "Oh my GAWD - where the F'K is my food???" - at least some of the time. Since we're talking cats, I'd rather not guess how that percentage pendulum swings in my favor - I'll gratefully assume it's more than enough.
Coffee - which never tastes better to me than it does on a day off. I'm not sure it's optional on the days I work, nor how enjoyable it is on those days as much as it just feels like a necessity. Work or not, I still struggle with drinking it black - and there are still days that I just can't do it. I'll take either one of those days, because there are people in this world who don't even have clean water to drink - at least not enough of it.
I heard a segment on the radio recently where people in a war torn area of the world (No, I'm not saying specifically, lest I piss off someone on either side of this nightmare) were talking about not having enough food and water and how they were having to make bread out of grains and other things normally used to feed chickens and other animals. They were saying how the bread was awful, had very little nutritional value and smelled like a chicken coup. Ever been in a chicken coup? They smell God awful. I'm grateful that even my worst culinary attempts don't smell like that.
Then it's off for the shower - I have clean, running water - about as hot as I care to run it in the shower. I have quality soap w/which to scrub the daily build up of excess dirt & oil from my body. And I would be grateful to have the money I've saved not having to buy shampoo for years now - never mind how many. I have soft, thirsty towels to dry my clean, naked & wet body with. Nice. I didn't have to forego showering altogether for the umpteenth consecutive day because there isn't any water, or the water that I bathe with is needed by the rest of the community for drinking. I can use as much as I want of it on that daily build up of excess dirt &...
Suffice it to say that I, like many people, take a lot of things for granted most days. Maybe that's in favor of wanting bigger & better things in our lives, along with our simply being accustomed to things that many people in this world don't have the luxury of. A wise person once said to me that we never think we have much until we lose it....or have to move. Then we have a lot.
So maybe we don't have to think of every little thing we have in our lives & acknowledge them in being grateful for them, but I'm of the opinion that we oftentimes have so much more to be grateful for than we tend to think we do. Time to feel blessed, time to get dressed. Peace, good people!
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