Knowing how to do a thing has very little to do with doing a thing.  No one starts out knowing how to do anything.  We all start off at zero.  Then we learn and adapt.  Being at zero is a dangerous place, because it can trick us into thinking we can’t do things.  Most of us can do most things.  I am grateful I don’t let not knowing how to do things stop me from doing things.

I have done a lot of things I didn’t know how to do.  I didn’t know how to build websites, but I did.  I didn’t know how to make database driven apps, but I did.  I didn’t know how to write a book, but I did.  I organized and hosted events even though I had no public speaking experience at all.  I just did these things.  I didn’t know anything when I started doing these things.  I am grateful I took these leaps.

I haven’t always taken the leaps.  I still often let a lack of knowledge stop me.  I really shouldn’t, I should just do things.  I’m grateful for all the times I did hard things even though I didn’t have a clue how to do them.  It is from these things I have learned the most.  I’m grateful we get to jump in and do things, even if we don’t know how to do them.  If this wasn’t true, I wouldn’t have gotten much done in my life.

“There are more of us.” – Lando Calrissian, The Rise of Skywalker.  I love a good Star Wars quote and this is one of them.  Lando says this when it looks like the Resistance is about to fall to the Evil Empire/First Order/Last Order (Whatever they call it, the movie was a bit…scattered?)  In horrible situations we can forget that there are more decent people than there are evil people.  I am grateful we have a few more good people than horrible people out there. 

There is a lot of evil at work today in the world.  Without some massive resisting force, things will get really bad.  I don’t pretend to know what way things will go.  There are a lot of evil, horrible people out there.  There is still hope because there are more of us than there are of them. 

It’s all a numbers game and that is where the hope is.  All it takes for things to be better is us decent people to keep being decent and fight the nonsense.   All it takes is a bit of effort on the part of us decent folks.  We can’t be lazy I know that much.  There are more of us than there are of them.

Fresh blueberries might be my favorite food.  When it is blueberry season here I buy 10 pound boxes of them, and eat every single one.  I also freeze them for the rest of the year, because frozen blueberries are fantastic.  I have a serious blueberry obsession.  Today fresh blueberries were cheap at the store, they are out of season right now, but they are cheap and available today.  I am grateful to have a supply of fresh out-of-season blueberries sitting in the fridge. 

I am pumped that tonight, I will be eating a fistful of these awesome berries.  I am quite literally excited about this.  This is an odd thing to be excited about, but I am going to go with it.  They are giving my day a little boost, that is never a bad thing.

This little boost makes me think there is something more to this spark.  Isn’t there something wonderful about getting things out of season?  It could be food, it could be music, it could be anything.  Maybe that’s why summer league basketball is fun to watch, after a couple months of no basketball I am ready for a little dose of ball again. I watch a lot of basketball in the winters, but then there is a long gap of no basketball.  I’m all for things being seasonal, it is the nature of things.  It is still nice to get a little taste of something out of season, it is a little spark of magic I think.

I think maybe this is magic we can use a bit more.  We can get stuck doing things we like seasonally.  Well there is little reason to hold most things to a single season or time.  Ice cream is still good in the middle of winter, and soup is pretty good on a hot day still.  Maybe doing things out of season can be a little touch of spontaneity and fun to break up monotony.  There is magic here that we can all wield.  This post stops here because its time to go eat some blueberries. 

Thinking is a hard thing to do.  Some people refuse to do it.  Some people cannot do it.  Some people are too busy to do it.  The power of thoughts and ideas are unmatched.  I am grateful I am capable of thinking about things. 

My brain can think, that is something that I am not nearly grateful enough for.  I can think my way to solutions and out of problems.  I think that is about all a man can ask for in life.  I think that is all I need to make all sorts of dreams come true.  I forget this sometimes.  It blows my mind that I forget this kind of thing. 

I listen to music while I work.  I spend a lot of time working in public places, so a little music to drown out the world is a wonderful thing.  In this context of work, music is a tool to me.  The music I use as a tool can be different than the music I might listen to for fun.  I am always on the search for new music and genres that help me get into a good work flow.  Time and time again bluegrass music keeps coming up as one of the best.  I am grateful that bluegrass music exists and that I have access to it.

I remember the dark days before the internet.  Before the internet we had music we bought and the radio, that was it.  In the past I would have never really had much access to bluegrass music.  Sure country radio would play a bluegrass song now and then.  Radio just isn’t near as conducive to work as internet radio.  Traditional radio has too many commercials, too much talking, and too many interruptions.  I can get a far better flow from the internet radio and music options. 

If I have a lot of writing or coding to do, bluegrass radio on Pandora is my go to music.  It helps me get into flow a bit and anything that helps with that is awesome.  It is not a big thing, but anything that helps me be better, that is something I can be grateful for.

Where we grow up can really influence the person we become.  I grew up in a small town, so that colors everything about me.  More specifically I grew up with a woods behind my house.  The woods was small, just one of those woods you end up getting inside a town, but to Young Nehemiah it was a world of mystery and fun.  I am so grateful to have grown up with this woods and real nature to be in.

This woods was perfect for building forts, for sledding and the general use of imagination.  I spent a lot of time out there when I was young.  I think there is an age where a young person needs some nature to play and explore in.  We weren’t far from home in the woods, but parents couldn’t watch over us too closely out there.  We got to be kids out there and play without the aid of screens or other civilized comforts. 

I can’t tell you that this woods made me the man I am today.  I can’t tell you that this woods gave me so many benefits.  I can tell you that this woods made my childhood a bit richer, more fun, and that is enough.  I think its good as kids we had a little space to be kids.  I am grateful I had a chance to grow up with such a nicety right out the back door.

We all need a little help now and then.  Some of us need more than a little help.  We’re likely to get help from our family and close friends.  There are times that we get help from people we don’t know real well too.  I am grateful for all those people I barely knew that helped me.

In the gym so many people have helped me lift better.  Some have spent so much time helping me become better.  I didn’t even always know their names.  They just helped me.

I was given a job by a guy I barely knew with barely an interview.  I needed a job bad at the time and that helped me out so much and helped my career. 

A kid a barely knew welcomed me into his crew when switched schools.  I had barely to that point talked to anyone at the new school.  I was at that point welcomed in as a friend for no reason I can really determine.

A guy I haven’t talked to in over a year helped me edit a book I’m writing.  He pretty much just said “sure I’ll take a look.”

I don’t know why these people were kind to me and helped me.  I’m sure if I thought long and hard I would come up with many more examples of people I barely knew doing good things for me.  This kind of kindness can really give a guy an optimistic view of the world.  It does make me wonder how I measure up to their examples.  These people have really helped me, but I wonder how I am helping others.  I know I should help more people, whether I know them or not.  I’m grateful I have gotten help from these people, they are examples to follow in my own behavior.  These folks provide both an example and a hope to me.

The hope I get from these people is that if these almost strangers helped me in the past, it is likely to happen again.  These people helped me in some deep ways.  This has to lead me to believe that the help I need with current and future struggles could come from anyone.  This is a beautiful thing to think that the help we need can come at any time from anyone.  We don’t have to know where the source might be.  Not having to know everything is something I can very grateful for.