Friends in deed

I give thanks to Biddy for organising such a lovely send off. Of course, technically it was her family who did the biz, the funeral directors and the new thoughtfully inclusive priest...but it's the people a person's life brings together that makes an occasion like this special as well, people sharing their love not only for the departed but for those present as well - even if some of them only know each other from Facebook photos. I give thanks for having good friends to be there with and new people to meet too...including one who fixes mobile phones for a living and can give me loads for my Kidney Research collection!

And, backtracking a bit, I give thanks for setting off a little later than I meant to, and waving a neighbour in his car past me as I came to the end of the terrace as it's tricky enough to turn out of without negotiating a random rushing pedestrian...and in the course of our brief conversation he revealed he was on his way to dialysis. I don't know him well but I can't say I had no idea, because I'm an observant soul and had wondered for a while about his kidney function, for reasons I thought might be to do as much with my own worries than clues. I give thanks for him allowing me to cadge a lift down the hill so we could talk a little more, and for his rebel spirit encouraging me more than any official literature or on line forum I've read.

I give thanks for beautiful weather, sitting outside in the sunny sensory gardens of the hotel nearby for the gathering, and popping down to the blustery bay with Jenny and Jane for a mug of tea afterwards. With the clear light, low tide and flat rollers it was very photogenic but too windy to try to take a shot (in fact I give thanks for not being hit by a gust propelled chair!) so this one is from a couple of days ago when it was also wild on the sea side but the back beach was, as usual, calm and blue. 

 I give thanks for coming home full of plans for things I might do and curling up instead with a book, a cuppa, a biscuit and a snooze. Emotions can be as exhausting as motion...and there's been a lot of both the last few weeks!

Toffee crisp

Though neither have been literally involved, I give thanks for a good run for my money where feeling well has been concerned, and that even today when I've seemed much less so I've still been able to manage many of the things I meant to.

I give thanks for getting on with finishing the colourfully trimmed cardigan to the extent that it looks likely it will be ready to wear for the funeral tomorrow as planned. I give thanks I'm also optimistic I'll find time to find something to wear with it, as no matter how unconventional the dress code it won't do on its own!

I give thanks to Jan for niftily restringing the labradorite necklace I botched earlier in the summer and sending it to me. I give thanks for an appreciative comment on yesterday's post from a new reader I don't know to prove it's true they do!

I give thanks for finding a few bags of those yummy caramels in Smiths after looking hopefully for weeks...and resisting the temptation to buy them all as I figured some other fan might appreciate finding some too.

I give thanks for sitting watching the surprisingly still quite rough sea at a very far out flat low tide...having a bit of a deep think. I give thanks for leftover curry, a microwave oven and crunchy poppadoms!

How many kinds of super is this?

I give thanks for the beautiful full moon last night, for living somewhere I can see it without going outside and for having a camera that brings it so close without bringing me close to bankruptcy! And apologies to everyone who saw this photo last night but, however strange as it may seem, there are people who don't know me who read my blog too...

I give thanks that, though my last comment on the matter was that I thought I'd be asleep at 3 am for the eclipse, my body woke me up in plenty of time to see how much cloud there was in that part of the sky. This really is a good thing because I suspected the moon would have disappeared behind the walls of the terrace let alone anything else by that time and there was a lovely gap of sky to marvel at Orion instead in anyway...

I give thanks for sleeping late and a slow start to the day before getting a full bustle on and simultaneously finishing making dhal for dinner, boiled egg for lunch and feta pastries for afternoon tea without ruining any of them. It was just after that that I hit the wall...I'm grateful I haven't hit the fibromyalgia wall for quite a while now. I've come across the hedge, the hurdle and the hump in the road but the wall where everything just comes to a complete stop has been absent for long enough for me to forget how utterly complete the stop has to be.

Yay...but I'm grateful I got over it eventually and for a busy afternoon, including a jolly knitting session with aforementioned pastries plus seed cake and mobiles for recycling from Dorothy, a quick cobweb blowing trip to the sunny back beach afterwards with Jenny and an even quicker one to the blowy 'front' one. I give thanks for unknowingly dropping my purse in the path of a good citizen who tried to find me there, and for his enterprising wife tracking me down on Facebook when he didn't succeed.

I give thanks that though EPO is used in my case for debilitating renal anaemia I'm getting an inkling why it's used as a performance enhancing drug by well athletes who want to win, and managed to get dinner in the oven and back down there in time to see the HUGE waves crashing over the wall as the tide rose, collect said purse from the lovely lady and get a lift back from Rachel for a big nosh, a performance enhancing treatment and the gift of a pretty dress her mother bought her that doesn't fit that will look just splendid with those new boots!

I give thanks for all the kindness there has been in my life lately...

Little goody blue shoes

I give thanks for the golden dawn light streaming through my curtains and moving across my bedroom wall reminding me winter is on its way...and for the warm sunshine reminding me that summer has not quite left.

I give thanks for energy to go out and for finding places to be solitary not far from the crowds. I give thanks for money to spend and exactly the things I wanted to spend it on being exactly where I went to look - I don't mind buying things but shopping is such a bore on a beautiful day! I give thanks for bright red berries and a coppery dragon fly, blue wetsuit shoes in case I get to go swimming again soon and blue fur lined boots in case I don't - both in a size smaller than I would have thought I'd needed. I give thanks the jolly sense of humour of the salesmen in both shoe shops. I give thanks for being given two donuts for the price of one because they were slightly small and mis-shapen - and for them tasting good anyway!

In process

I give thanks that Laura is going to teach a sewing class and has offered to run up a top for me as one of her ones she 'made earlier'. I give thanks that after we'd arranged for her to come and pick up the fabric yesterday evening, I thought in the morning to ask her if she'd like to stay for tea. Usually when I ask her this she says she needs to get back for something or other so it was quite a surprise when she answered my text so swiftly in the affirmative - turns out she was extra grateful for the offer as she'd woken up to find her cooker had just died!

I give thanks for a very fun and funny evening, and delicious easy food from various supermarkets including Waitrose ginger choc ices.

I give thanks taking it easy today and for a mostly quiet day on the terrace to do it. I give thanks for a good book and a snooze and a gentle potter with the creative and domestic tasks after a busy and sociable week for me.

And I give thanks for the people in my life at the moment...I have to add 'at the moment' because I also give thanks that I know that friendships, like any other kind of relationships, are processes not things because that's what things (and people) are! Hope that you don't have too much trouble processing that thought...and that you are grateful for yours too!

Pleased to meet me

I give thanks for horizontal light on the crisping leaves before the sun went down yesterday and the pink pearl of the sky and sea afterwards...for owls calling in the trees in the night.

I give thanks for the easy friendliness of the place I live, the way strangers interact and spread smiles and laughter. I give thanks for thus being able to help a stuck customer choosing frames in Specsavers (as she did for me!) and discuss the aesthetic merits of vintage tractors in Superdrug.

I give thanks for the river calling 'Come down here and look at me!' through a gap in the buildings, and for phones taking such reasonable photos when you've left your camera behind.  I give thanks for my own goldfish memoried 'Oh look at the sea!', giving thanks that it fills my soul with joy again...and again...and again...

I give thanks for this heart warming and thought provoking story of helping people do what matters to them at the end. Sometimes it's not the big stuff you yearn for, which is good because sometimes it's the not the big stuff you can get, sometimes it's a teacup list more than a bucket one...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34297590

I give thanks for watching Wild reminding me I must download that ancient classic Covers EP, and then remembering I have it on....cassette! I give thanks I also have a fully functional cassette playing stereo system (and headphones!) but also for finding this charming video to go with one of the tracks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh0wL-PN5dQ
And I give thanks for our South American street musicians reminding me of the film Wild playing a song about a hammer and a nail - and beaming back at me as I thanked them and put some money in the collection.

I give thanks for searching, lengthily but fruitlessly so far, for a piece of music I heard a few years ago. It was something to do with the Adirondack mountains or Saranac lake and as I'd heard of neither at the time it sounded to me as if inspired by Scotland. Obviously I've done all the usual searches and I know it was on Classic FM on a Sunday...and I remember Ann commenting on it, but neither Facebook nor my blog will yield a link or a further clue! So why do I give thanks for searching? Oh, because I got to read so many posts I'd forgotten about and have ended up fully grasping for the first time what an amazing enterprise a four and a half year long daily gratitude blog is and how it changes you. I get why people say nice things about it...and, this is going to sound well daft I know...but I get why people say nice things about me. I think I'd quite like me if I met me too - although I give thanks for also knowing there's always room for improvement!

Back to colours

I give thanks for a day when I didn't have to do anything much at all - nice or not! For opening my laptop thinking 'Hmm, what do I have to be grateful for today?' and the first thing I see being a photo from yesterday to remind me...

I give thanks for a chuckle with one of my favourite Tesco delivery drivers. He's been coming here for years and is no longer fazed by my sense of humour - every little helps you know! I give thanks their mushroom, leek and gruyere filo parcels are back in stock...though not for long for I shall buy every one and eat it!

For catching up with that bun in the oven show and discovering my second favourite anaesthetist is still doing OK. For persuading my very creaky hands to crochet a little more so that a very long running project is a little nearer completion. I hoped to finish it this summer but this summer slipped through my fingers more swiftly than I could stitch, so now I'm aiming to get it done to go to a very special funeral next week where colourful knitwear will be just the thing to wear.

Not on my watch

I'm grateful for having a right old rant at the universe last night. I know plenty about learning and growing from difficult experiences... but one particular situation I just thought and thought about and could not come up with anything other than 'You know what? I have learnt nothing of value from this at all! This was so not what was supposed to happen next!' And this morning the universe said 'Yep - we know, just testing you! If you're absolutely sure...' and sent a man with a van full of tea and tenderness to take me up on the moor and be silly and happy with, and shake our heads in wonder at the way that things can be.

So I give thanks for the night watch soul searching, and for making sure that I was sure. I give thanks for avoiding (as far as is possible by this human anyway) expectations, assumptions, fears, doubts and other bummers. I give thanks for trust, faith, taking chances, for taking on the universe and saying 'Oh, give me a break!' For having it affirmed that it really is absolutely, unequivocally, awesomely, amazingly OK to be me.

Postscript

I give thanks for a lovely comment on a blog post a couple of days ago, it's nice to know my words appreciated sometimes.

I give thanks for working on a long running crochet conundrum this morning whilst cogitating on some social ones...

I give thanks for zooming in with my camera and still not knowing what it was I could see out to sea - giant's garden furniture perhaps?

I give thanks for spreading some mirth in the breast screening unit, and for meeting Jenny afterwards for a cuppa in a supermarket on the edge of town I've not shopped in before. I give thanks for realising I've not missed much, though I guess I'm not their target market, to be fair and I did get a nice loaf of bread and some alioli.

I give thanks for the Greek deli being open and for discovering they are always shut on Mondays so that I needn't panic again. I have real feta, delicious home made hummus and a custard bun and look forward to trying the rest of their wares. I guess I am exactly the target market they're aiming for there!

I give thanks for being polite at the Post Office when they insisted they still didn't have the mail I knew they should have, and toddling home to ring up and complain yesterday's complaint had done nothing. It was a short wait for the bus, and a bit of a slog up the hill with the weight of the shopping but when I turned on to the terrace for some reason I was fascinated by an unmarked vehicle parked in the road and a hi-vis vested chap wandering about and captured him with my gaze so he was ready to speak to me when I arrived...and explain he was looking for my flat with a large pile of mail he'd been directed to deliver. Technically the execution of the was still wrong, of course, but the timing was so perfect I could do nothing but gratefully bring my pile of ebay treasure home.

Livid the dream

I'm grateful this anaemia treatment is still keeping me on my feet, as I've had to think on them rather a lot today sorting out miscommunications, other people's mislayings and the like. I'm grateful for my phone and my firmness...and for chuckling to myself that it's been more 'Wild? I was absolutely livid!' today than feeling mellow in the wilderness or actually getting cross about cross purposes.

I'm grateful for a skyful of variegated cloud, a seaful of sparkle, a heartful of essence of smile.

I'm grateful for my rampant disregard for the limitations of our language... When I rule the world you'll be able to take a degree in neology and be marked on artistic impression rather than bound by conventional content. I'm grateful no matter how idiotic it may seem, my ideology pleases me!

Wild inside

I give thanks for it starting out sunny today so I had visions of going out to play again, but that it clouded over and I used remnants of spare energy perhaps more sensibly doing seated tai chi, standing ironing and donning rubber gloves to sort out some of the incorrectly filled communal recycling bins.

I give thanks for a patch of peacefulness in the proximity this afternoon to immerse myself in the film Wild, which I'd been waiting to come out on DVD and ordered from the library as soon as I saw it was there (and which the watching of which Rachel and I had as a back up plan if our plan to go a bit wild ourselves fell apart!) It's a true story of finding amazing within yourself whatever you've lost and whatever you've found along the way... I give thanks for knowing walking further than you think you can and 'putting yourself in the way of beauty' are damn fine ways to do it.*  And I give thanks for knowing that simply being by yourself and/or being outdoors work well as well...

*See the film if you don't know what the latter phrase means...it's always there somewhere if you look!

I give thanks that I'm still being and growing... and knitting squares for the heartwarming patchwork blanket.

Micro topic

I give thanks for a more than a little help from a friend, meds doing what they should not what they shouldn't plus weather goddess wonder combining to make such a delightful (and for me deliriously unlikely) microadventure. I give thanks for finally christening my post op 'I can go swimming now' Lidl wetsuit after two years of it teetering on the edge of the charity shop pile, sitting on a log eating tea cooked on a stove lent to me long ago by someone too double barrelled to need it now, and sleeping under the shooting stars in a bay where we discovered seals make rather scarily noisy nighttime companions. I give thanks for discovering we were perfectly orientated for the sun to come up over our toes and watching it turn the dew droplets on the awning over our head to gold.

Enough detail, I know...probably either you don't get it at all, or you do and do similar things regularly...but for recent me it's the kind of thing I hear about and think 'Why can't my life have that kind of stuff in?' Well, for a few hours it could, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my good fortune at having such a thoughtful and compatible companion, such a smart planning head of my own, and so many little random miracles of delight only the universe could provide...

Today, naturally, I've been rather grateful to do very little at all ;-)

Good books

I give thanks for good books - that make you think, or make you forget to think about things you'd really rather not, that tell you things you didn't know (or things you knew inside but didn't realise anyone else felt or understood), that transport you to unglimpsed places or reunite you with the familiar, that make you laugh or maybe sometimes cry a little in an empathetic way... 

You can get all of the above from people of course, but if you're short of the kind of friends you get to spend time with, to do things together or just hang out and talk with, a book or two is another way of being other than just being alone inside your head. I give thanks for knowing this...

I give thanks that I can read, and have access to words that enthrall me... I give thanks that I can write too, and thus am somehow what I always wished to be - a 'writer'. I give thanks for knowing this too...

But most of all today I give thanks for friends that read between the lines and see that out to play is where I often wish to be too. They are always in my good books... 

The hungry walker

I give thanks for a splodge of gold in the sky at sunset, for a better morning than night, and a better afternoon than morning...

I give thanks for arranging to meet Jenny in town to make the doing of our chores seem more pleasurable...and, as my chores turned out to be mostly undoable, it made the trip seem more purposeful for me as well.

I give thanks for finding and buying a baby hob kettle, and enjoying pots of the finest speciality tea in town (plus a large slice of carrot cake to fill a snack gap in my middle) while we discussed the challenges of accepting and appreciating what is...other than fine tea and cake of course, which is rarely a problem! This sculpture was just being installed in the cafe after gracing the seafront for a while, so I'm grateful I have a 'library picture' to refer back to.

I give thanks for a lift home. I was grateful for still feeling quite vigorous and strong enough to walk down the hill in the first place but enough appetite working up for one day I think...

Extra time

I give thanks for riding the ups and downs of the day, and for the GP who rang me this evening looking out of the window during the call and saying she could see 'mad' surfers in the rain riding their own. Last time a doctor rang me they were talking about the vintage caravans outside poised ready for posing for filming - I'm grateful I encourage them to take time to notice more than symptoms!

I give thanks for making a delicious Eve's pudding from the free apples at the essential oil shop, and munching on that at intervals throughout the day as well as other ready steady cook type concoctions from what was to hand. I give thanks for being hungry...and for having good food to eat.

I give thanks for irreverent chuckles at rather rude Rudetube clips, and a very touching one made by a Norwegian son to promote the romantic potential of his mother who didn't see what anyone would see in her.

I give thanks for the life and peaceful passing of Biddy, a new friend but a good one, an old friend but young at heart, and someone else who had beaten many odds and understood how odd this can make your views on things compared to those whose time doesn't seem so borrowed.

I give thanks for what happened in this traffic jam in Somerset. There's shorter clips out there but it's pretty much my favourite piece of music ever so I went for the longest one I could find...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLroraZCEb4

Free be

I give thanks for multiple origins of gratitude during the last twenty four hours including...

A delicious think on your feet tea with Rachel while we plotted our mini escape later this week...

A tanker coming in to port after dark lit up like a Christmas tree...

Trying out lining my ancient sleeping bag with a fleece blanket, lying in it on living room carpet and almost falling asleep...

Feeling stronger this morning than I have for a long while...

Still having a long lie in...and still having time to go out and do what I wanted to do...

Discovering I'd remembered to pack a snack of leftover feta pastries...

All the waterbirds enjoying low tide in the estuary...

All the bargains I got at the shops including free apples and a free lush face mask...

Being so utterly enthralled by the sounds on my Walkman and the sights of the sea that the train guard had to wave his hand in front of me several times to get my attention...

Sounds OK

I give thanks for a robin trilling in a young tree at dusk

I give thanks for drunken revellers waking me in the middle of the night... so that I got to hear a shower of rain after they'd blundered off...and the waves breaking on the shore when that passed by as well.

I give thanks for more and longer periods of feeling OK today, and the bits of not feeling OK not being so severe. I give thanks for catching up with stuff a bit, and listening to my body when it quietly points out I need to stop. I give thanks for remembering doing what it says when it says it would be a better idea than just noting the warning and carrying on regardless. My body really shouts sometimes....

Patient's rewarded

Well, my hopes of a better night and feeling more well today didn't come to be at first at all, so it was a hard old slog to town to get a bag of groceries, and to the Post Office to collect my mail but I was particularly grateful I did as there was a huge box of flowers to pick up that would have been a bit limp by Monday! Much thanks to Gary and Stephy for those...

I was grateful for running into one of the many lovely Jennies I know for a quick chat after queueing there, but by then I'd reached sit down or fall down stage so before I could do more I stopped for a reviving cuppa at a well known local supermarket café...or a long Wait in a short queue more like. I'm grateful for remembering to point out to my fellow sufferers, in the general tutting and head tossing at unbelievably slow disorder with which they dealt with our orders, that we must feel sorry for the staff on the receiving end of all the grumpy looks and mutters. And I'm grateful I got an extra five mins sit down while they worked out how to make a pot of tea and carry it to my table...and then go back for milk!

I'm grateful for buying hasty tasty things for my meals over the next weekend, before another lengthy wait for a cab home (if I'd ordered it before the cup of tea it would have turned out just right!)... but I was quite grateful for that too because it was a lovely sunny breezy day to be outdoors and there was a wall to lean on...

I'm grateful for an offer from Laura to go out for a walk, as though clearly that was beyond me, she was happy to take me for a drive to a car park with a view instead, and maybe a little gentle stroll, and maybe an ice cream...and maybe a drive up the river for a cup of tea...and maybe some chips to share...or maybe - ooh one of those delicious mezzes! I give thanks for a lovely late afternoon and early evening with her discussing everything from changes in political leadership to altering sewing patterns (oh, and maybe the odd boy or two, ha ha!)...it's lovely to be in good company, no surprise there, but even more gratitude for the surprise of feeling well enough to enjoy it!

Tears and fears

I give thanks for feeling a little less dreadful. My blood pressure is beginning to stabilise so that I no longer have to cope with feeling as if I am literally dying at least once an hour, but my emotions are still all over the place and I'm still crying at least once an hour so I'm grateful there's only virtual comfort on offer and no one has to deal with the damp and smelly reality!

I give thanks that my appetite is returning though if it had come back with a team of kitchen staff it would be even better of course. I'm grateful I managed to cook something yesterday evening and eventually complete the washing up today. I'm grateful that the weather is grey and no one wants me to go out and play. I'm grateful I haven't run out of books to read or films or recorded TV and movies. I'm grateful I think I might be able to sleep better tonight.

Seven year bitch

The picture's technically irrelevant, but I'm grateful I found one that somehow expresses my emotions this incredibly physically and psychologically demanding day anyway. I give thanks for the people who tried to make it better and for trying to make it better for the people I encountered on the way.

Seven years ago this afternoon I was told that I had cancer. What to say from the heart that's heart warming about this bitchingly hard, long and lonely chunk of my existence?

I give thanks for the times when I didn't feel in danger

when I didn't feel in pain

when I didn't feel scared

when I didn't feel stuck

when I didn't feel alone

when I felt I couldn't deal with something and managed anyway

when I faced death with dignity

when I faced life without hope

when I remembered I am all I have

and all I have to do

is keep on

loving

Rough guide

I give thanks for getting through another day of feeling rough, a lot of it spent lying down under a cosy throw with the window open so that I could listen to the soft roar of the rough sea.

I give thanks for the sight of the white topped waves, and a spider web glinting outside the window pane in the evening sun.

I give thanks for getting a small load of laundry done and a small pile of ironing. For a little chat with Jenny on the phone. For starting another enjoyable book, and watching some visually pleasing TV. For trying not to think too much but simply just to be...

I give thanks for this short film of an touching underwater interaction

http://www.reshareworthy.com/seal-asks-diver-for-belly-rub/

Change and rest are good

I give thanks for a fun and fascinating few hours with Rachel yesterday evening. I give thanks for being looked after by her, and by Jenny today. I give thanks for owls hooting in the trees outside before I put my earplugs in for the night. And, when I couldn't sleep, for rethinking something. Doesn't matter whether I got it 'right' or 'wrong', just changing my perception was the thing....

I give thanks for persuading the medical profession that exactly what I was planning to do next regarding treatment was exactly what they'd recommend, as things the way they have been need to change as well...

I give thanks for headphones, music, knitting and books for giving me quiet time and space to cogitate and assimilate in a mostly horizontal and resting day.

Bearing up well

I give thanks for feeling weller today than I've any right to do so...for being a changing woman if you're partial to a pun.

I give thanks for skipping knitting, not through fatigue but much sunshine to stay indoors

I give thanks for a to do list that includes get frankincense and cash and saying hi to my favourite merman.

I give thanks for surfing seagulls, and for butterflies on the beach. I give thanks for me on the beach...and that it was a beach I had to go further to get to than I usually do (no point in sitting still when I feel well!)

Transit champ

Today I thought I was going to do something nice with someone nice, but I misjudged the niceness of the someone so, as I'd bought an expensive ticket, I'm grateful I decided to carry on and make the best of the day on my own anyway.

I'm grateful for a bright early autumn morning, to tempt me on my way, reminding me that despite the unexpected and sometimes unwelcome twists and turns, I'm still on my own journey.

I'm grateful for the enthralling photos in the exhibition and these windows pretending to be pictures outside...for the gold leaf that ran down the steps to meet me as I drew near the park, for snoozing in the sunshine on the grass and gazing up at the full spread trees.

I'm grateful for the delicious falafels and vine leaves from a Lebanese restaurant and for the exquisite lucid light fading into sunset as the train headed south. And I'm grateful for a long chat with Mima who by a more auspicious twist was booked on the same departure.

The comfort of blanket

Today's not been the easiest of days, not least due to trying to decide which of the available unappealing options for tomorrow I would most regret. Hmm...So what's there to be grateful for?

Well, I'm grateful for knowing neither drink nor drugs, nor ranting and wrangling, nor even kind words or hugs will sort out our hard stuff out for us. I'm grateful for knowing that it's us that makes it hard in the first place with our aims and assumptions and preferences and perceptions... And I'm grateful for earplugs to dilute the sound of other folk dealing with their own hard stuff in less accepting ways...

I'm grateful for feeling fairly well and thus able to get on with various chores, for a fascinating book about forensic psychology to give my brain a rest from working out the workings of my own brain... And the comfort of getting on with the blanket...

Worth its weight in

I give thanks for a dozy dreamy sort of day...I meant to do more but I've done more in the last two or three weeks than is normal for nowadays,  and if my body says stop I give in.

I give thanks for keeping myself fed, clean, clothed and amused - with a little virtual help from my friends with the amusement and from Mr. Tesco with the catering. I give thanks for no pressure or urgency for more. I give thanks at several failure ridden attempts at getting on with creative projects and snoozes in front of the TV - noisiness permitting.

I give thanks for remembering what abundant luxury all of the above is...I give thanks for remembering the only things I can change about things I cannot choose is the way I think about them.

I give thanks for the crowing calls of autumn... and for the phone just ringing and it being an irrelevant automated thing which might have been annoying, but meant I arrived in the kitchen in time to see the golden glow of the sun going down.

Something else

I give thanks for it going suddenly silent yesterday evening and for enjoying a leisurely bath and supper including a tasty quiche provided by Mr Tesco. Oh and a silly, funny film about killer sheep...

I give thanks for more sunshine today, and a little chance to enjoy it going about my day. I give thanks for doing something I really didn't want to much to please a friend and, after finding it even more exhausting than I thought I would, having a humongous nap when I got home...

I give thanks for realising my Skybox is almost full of recorded things I'd like to watch, so I'd best away and start watching them...

I give thanks for my utter awesomeness...or whatever it is...Oh yes, happy state of delusion!

Hard to follow

I give thanks that it is September. I know that dates are pretty arbitrary things, but that arbitrary chunk of time we knew as 'August 2015' was hard going and I'm glad it's gone!

I give thanks for warm sunshine and sparkling sea. For not so many people enjoying it all in the same place at the same time as there have been of late. I give thanks for being buzzed by a big bronze dragon fly, and sitting doing nothing but being in one of my favourite solitary spots.

I give thanks for new earplugs that fit very snugly, and for finding a book to follow a fascinating one about learning to be a clinical psychologist. I couldn't imagine what I might like to read after that but I opened a rather unpromising looking scifi-ish thing and am completely hooked...

I'm grateful together they might be a plan for this evening unless next door run out of beer, turn off the blaring radio, stop talking at the top of their voices over it and go quietly back indoors!