I can be as greedy as the next man.  I want more money.  I want more good things in my life.  Most of us want more of the good things.  More does not always matter though.  Sometimes one is enough.  I am grateful that one of something can be enough.

If you ask people to list the important things in life you’re going to get a lot of the same answer.  You will hear you need to have a good career.  You will hear you need to marry an awesome person.  You will hear you want to own a good home.  These are all huge things in your life.  They are also things you only have to get right once.

I find it comforting that when it comes to some of the most important decisions and accomplishments that we only have to get things right once.  I make a lot of mistakes and missteps in life.  I am comforted by the idea that I just have to get a few of the big things right once.  Having to get things right for my whole life seems like it would be hard.  I can do a few things right once though.

There are so many things that fall into this category of things.  In the hard days its nice to think that we only have to do one good thing for things to turn.  One good conversation with the right person can flip things really quick.  I am just grateful there is great power in the power of one.

Weekends are about a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  The activities people engage in range from the relaxing to the depraved to the religious.  Sundays seem to be a little bit different than Saturdays.  They seem to be a bit slower.  There seems to be a bit of space to breath on a Sunday.  I am grateful there is just something different about Sundays.

My Sundays are currently are about a bit of food, a bit of quiet, and a bit of planning.  It’s nice to have time to myself to just think, and Sunday is where I get that time.  Having this time keeps me a little more levelled out.  I’m not lazy on Sundays, but I do let myself move at whatever pace seems natural.  For me Sundays are about just having space.

Luckily society lets us have a little space on Sundays.  I worry this could be disappearing more and more.  Our society is filling Sundays with more and more activity and chaos.  We might be losing our space to breath and think.  There is no doubt society doesn’t value either of those things.  For now I remain grateful Sundays are a bit different and have a bit more space to them.

Giving ourselves this space is very important.  I have lacked that space in the past.  I just never let myself have it.  Right now I give it to myself on Sundays.  This may change someday.  It really doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that I keep giving myself space.

I keep a journal of thoughts and ideas.  There is not a lot of structure to what I write in there.  Sometimes it’s just an organization document for things to do later.  I have been keeping these for a while, to document where I am at mentally at any given time.  I think it helps to document the process in life.  I am grateful I have kept all those journals from the past several years.

I like that I have kept the journals I have written the last few years.  I do not look at them very often.  I maybe once or twice a year look back into these documents to see where I was at in the past and to skim for ideas.  I find it useful to have a snapshot of my past that doesn’t change as I change.  It shows me have I have progressed or not progressed at given things.  Our views of the past are flawed, so a journal can combat that a bit. 

Being able to view the past accurately may or may not matter to me.  If I try and write about my path through life someday it will be useful.  I suppose looking at the dumb and smart things I did and the results of these things might be useful if I forget.  I don’t know what the uses of this journal data might be, but I’m grateful I kept the data.

I am grateful beards make a powerful statement with no efforts at all.

I think it is awesome I am 100% comfortable in Wal-Mart jeans.

I am happy winning and losing both carry so much value.

I am happy where you start is not where you have to finish. We can get better in all things. We can force change, or we can go with the flow. We really get a lot of options where we go in life. The real trick is just capitalizing on those opportunities. I am grateful we don’t have to know how we will capitalize in order to get started.

Living in Indiana means that snow is a part of life.    We have blowing snows.  We have light snows.  Sometimes we get April snow.  We have heavy snows.  We get a lot of different kinds of snow here.  I am grateful that now and then we get sticky snow!

Sticky snow is the kind of snow that just sticks to trees, buildings, and anything else.  The cool thing is it makes everything look really pretty outside.  Everything is dusted with a heavy layer of snow when it snows like that.  Nothing else quite looks like it.  It only lasts a little while, but its gorgeous while it stays on the trees.  This is just one of those short lasting things in nature that we get to enjoy.

The snow on all these trees is just a little dose of spontaneous beauty to appreciate.  There is nothing anyone can do to plan for this kind of beauty.   We only get to enjoy it now and then.  I try and enjoy these kind of views when they show up because it could be a long time, even years before we get another view like it. 

The beauty of this snow is all about the moment.  We can enjoy the beauty of this moment, or we can lose it.  We are unable to manufacture this kind of moment again too.  This is true with many things in life, I think we are wise to recognize that.  Some moments are gifts, and we can’t get more of them even if we tried.  All we can do is enjoy them when they happen.  Therefor I will go for a walk in the snow today and enjoy the scenery.

Starting new things is a great chance to learn.  It allows us to go places with our thoughts and attitudes that we have not been before.  This uncharted territory of new things can be a bit scary.  It is worth starting new things despite any anxiety, stress, or fear.  I am grateful for all the things I started having no idea how they would turn out or lead. 

I am grateful I started writing code.  It taught me so much about how the world works under the surface.

I am grateful I started walking daily.  It has opened up a new world of peaceful thought while strolling aimlessly.

I am grateful I started writing my strength journal.  It is forcing me to learn and become better.  I have no choice in the matter, to publish the journal I must become stronger constantly.

I have started so many things, we all have.  I think when we quit starting new big things we limit ourselves.  Uncharted territory is where the riches lay.  I am grateful I am willing to walk into new situations and try new things. 

There was a time when I was a child when we lived in a little house in the country.  We weren’t in some remote location, but we did have to use antenna to get our television service.  I remember getting something like 6 channels on a good day.  I also remember watching Purdue basketball when we lived there.  Well we watched the games that we could get.  Back then a big chunk of the games weren’t on TV or weren’t on TV we could get.  This was a combination of games just not being televised, or us not being able to get the channel.  In modern times with the advent of 1,000 or so sports channels, I get to watch all the games(at least most of them).  I’m grateful that we live in a glorious time in which I get to watch almost all the Purdue games. 

I enjoy watching Purdue basketball.  Getting to watch all the games is really cool.  It is a wonderful thing when we get to fully enjoy things we love.  Back in the dark days I wasn’t able to enjoy watching all the games.  Watching Purdue basketball is just one of the best things in life.  I’m glad I’m smart enough to realize that watching Purdue basketball is one of the best things in life.

I think it’s wise to find the things we enjoy most in life.  It shows some level of self-awareness.  The next level wisdom in my mind is to maximize how often and how much we get to enjoy our favorite things.  Some things cannot be enjoyed all the time due to costs or other limiting factors.  Too often though the limiting factor is one that we make up in our own mind. 

I find it really dumb when we limit our enjoyment of life for no real reason.  When we enjoy simple, cheap, and abundant things, I see no reason not to enjoy those things more often.  If you like basketball why not watch a game every night?  If you like reading, why not visit the library and read all sorts of things?  I don’t understand why we would limit such things.  I know I try not to limit myself.  I watch all the games, and I love every minute of it.

Popcorn might be my favorite snack.  To be truthful I think I could eat it almost every single night and not tire of it.  There are a million varieties of popcorn out there.  I just want regular popcorn with butter and salt on it.  I used to eat a lot of microwave popcorn.  I don’t eat microwave popcorn anymore though, I have started popping corn myself and adding real butter and salt.  I am grateful I have found the pinnacle of popcorn and left behind microwave popcorn for good.

This post is a little bit about popcorn, and a little bit about finding the best version of things.  When it comes to many of the things we like, we have a lot of choices of varieties.  I think there is value to spending time to find the best versions of things we like.  The best version will be a bit dependent on our own personal preferences.  We should be happy whenever we discover the best version of a thing. 

I am grateful for finding the proper way to cook popcorn.  I am grateful that every time I have popcorn going forward it will be the best version possible.   There may be a better version of popcorn out there, but I have not discovered it yet.  Finding a better version, a better way, a better flavor, that is always something to be grateful for.  

It is a part of the human condition that we lose things.  Friends will move away.  People we love will die.  Our bodies will quit working right.  TV shows will get cancelled.  Loss is a part of life.  Sometimes something cool happens a while after loss.  Sometimes things come back.  Regaining something we have lost, or thought we had lost, that is a feeling that brings overflowing gratitude. 

I have lost many things in life.  Some of those things I got back.  Some just dropped back into my life.  Sometimes I fought to get them back.  I’m glad there have been so many things that came back to me.  Getting more of something we use to love.  THAT is one of the most beautiful things that can happen.  It is truly a gift from God.

I am almost giddy and laughing with joy at the things I realize have come back to me.

With the new Picard series, Jean Luc Picard has returned to Star Trek.

Star Wars came back with Episode 7, none of us thought we were getting more Star Wars.

My friend Grant came back, he emailed me at Purdue, I had not seen him in a couple years.  Then we started hanging out again, he came back and with him a friendship I don’t even have the words to explain.

I broke myself with injury and couldn’t workout hard, was weak and had to have surgery.  Then afterwards I came back.  I was able to set some personal records again.  I fought hard to get that back.  I only got it back a short while, but it was worth it.  I grew so strong out of it.

There are so many other things I have had come back to me in life.  It’s so wonderful to get to do them again.  It might only be for a short while, but sometimes one more time is enough.  In those moments I really feel the love and grace of God.  Some of these things that have come back to me that I lost, there is no way to think of them other than gifts from God. 

I don’t think we should hope that things come back.  A lot of things in our lives are gone for good.  I think when God brings them back to us though, we should experience them with the gratitude, love and passion they deserve.  Losing things and getting them back, that experience should change us.  I know for me that is a path to more joy, more gratitude, and more love.