First

Ouch! My disappointment nerve is getting tweaked rather more often than is comfortable lately, so I give thanks for being reminded about the risks of expectations...though not always straight away, of course!  Life as we think we know it doesn't actually exist and it's sensible to remember it may not always do what it says on the tin, fact sheet, website or whatever, let alone whatever we imagine what it says might actually mean. Everything and everyone is a process, full of variables and changeability and out first choice to pin our hopes on should be that we get better at equanimity. I give thanks for practising...

I give thanks for being home and cosy on a rather dreary damp evening. For food to eat without having to go out and see what's left on the supermarket shelves. For Sam the decorator man being congenial company and succeeding with papering the two waiting bedroom walls. For the paper I chose even before I moved in looking delightfully right. For being sure I will eventually come up with a workable remedy for the fiasco in the living room...and for plenty to be getting on with while I wait for Plan G inspiration to arrive.

I give thanks for not feeling the need to use excessively disaster laden language to describe what has and has not gone on over the last few days, nor even to press your bad news seeking buttons by going into details. My problems are thwarted First World whims, not matters of life and death. And even the matters of life and death...well, those are totally First World too when you think about it! I give thanks for allowing myself to believe the immersion heater is warming up a tank of water as a First World wallow would be very welcome right now!