Grateful
As I mentioned yesterday, for Thanksgiving I made a list of 100 things for which I am thankful, just under the wire to be able to mark it as “done” before my list of 100 things to do in 1001 days expired. I started the list quite a while ago, so a few things had been sitting on an unfinished list for ages – nothing like a deadline to motivate completion!
Two trends are pretty evident in the list. One: living in a pandemic really made me reflect on things that I previously took for granted. Two: I was hungry when I was composing this list.
The list is presented in alphabetical order because I couldn’t rank these things – I’m grateful for them all!
- Ann, my mom – for raising me well and always loving and supporting me and just being a great mom and a great friend. I’m lucky to have her.
- baking
- beaches
- being alive
- berries
- blogging
- bourbon I bought the last time I was in NYC
- campfires
- cheese
- chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven
- clean air to breath – after a recent week of wildfire smoke coming up from the US + toxic smoke from the Pier Park fire, I really appreciate being able to go outside a breath clean air
- coffee
- contact tracers who are following up with people who have been in contact with people who have COVID so that the chains of transmission can be stopped
- creativity – mine and other people’s
- Crick, my girl cat – I’m especially aware of my gratitude for her this year. I was really worried she might not make it to Thanksgiving. I’m so grateful that she’s here with us, being her spunky little treat-loving cuddly self.
- dancing
- dark chocolate
- dishwasher – so glad I don’t have to wash the dishes by hand
- electricity
- end of my mortgage being in sight
- essential workers who have been facing risk during the pandemic to keep society going – grocery store workers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, people working in pharmacies, and so many more
- firefighters who fought the fire at Pier Park recently – they came from several cities to help out our local New West firefighters to put out a truly terrible fire
- Format Painter function in Microsoft Word – it saves me so much time!
- French fries
- good books
- healthcare workers that are putting their lives on the line during this pandemic to care for others
- heating – as the days get colder, I am grateful that I have warmth in my home
- hockey – and that the place I live in currently has low enough COVID numbers, and my league has put a COVID safety plan in place, so that I can play. I know that we could lose that at any time, and I’m grateful for every game I get to play
- home office set up: two big screens, an ergonomic keyboard, a desk, and a good office chair – makes it a lot easier to work from home than it would otherwise be
- hope
- ice cream
- indoor plumbing
- in-suite washer and drier
- Internet – sure there’s a lot of bad stuff on there, but there’s also a lot of good information and opportunities to stay connected with my friends and family who are far away
- Jack, my dad. I’m grateful that I had a good dad who raised me well and always supported me and who left me with lots of wonderful memories and the knowledge that he loved me. I was lucky to have him as my dad.
- jobs that allow me to work from home, which gives me more freedom to choose where and when I go during this pandemic, which is not a freedom that everyone has
- laughter
- leftovers – I often like food even more the next day and they make lunchtime so easy
- living and working near Skytrain stations so I can commute to work by transit (clear this one was written in the Before Times. But in anticipation that I will someday work in an office again, it stays on the list)
- living in a place that is managing the pandemic relatively well. It’s not perfect – and the pandemic is certainly revealing and exacerbating many of the inequities in our society, but I know that things could be much worse (and are much worse in other places). I’m hopeful that we will start to address the inequities that we’ve been ignoring for so long).
- Madeline, my niece
- mail parcel locker in the lobby of my building – so Canada Post can leave packages for me even when I’m not home
- mangoes
- maple syrup
- my car – it gets me to hockey, it gets me to Crick’s vet appointments, it gives me freedom to stay off of crowded transit during a pandemic. Not everyone has that option.
- my education
- my friends – too numerous to mention (and if I tried, I’m probably forget someone and then feel really guilty about it!)
- my gym – grateful that it’s currently safe enough where I live for my gym to be open, that the gym has put a COVID safety plan in place so I can go and workout there, and that my fellow gym members all do their part to keep things as safe as possible
- my health
- my housecleaners – they make our home a lovely clean place to live and I don’t have to clean!
- my love of learning – it’s gotten me far in life and made my life interesting!
- my massage therapist
- my purple chair – it’s such a cosy spot to curl up on in the living room to read a book or drink a cup of tea
- my twice yearly spa date with my friend Kim
- my warm, soft bed
- Nancy, my sister
- naps – I should take more of these
- new raincoat – it keeps me dry on rainy Vancouver days
- New Westminster Quay – after half the Westminster Pier Park burned down, I’m extra grateful that I have the quay to go for a walk on. I love to be by the river and to see people who are out walking their dogs, playing with their kids, going for a run, connecting with (small groups of!) friends (in a physically distant way!)
- pigeons – because every time I see them, I think of my dad
- Pokemon Go Community Days with my friends Cath and Kalev
- post-it notes
- potatoes
- rain
- right to vote – not everyone has it and not every who has it can easily do so. I voted in the current provincial election without even having to leave my building (I got a mail in ballot mailed to me, filled it out and dropped it in the mail slot that is in the Canada Post parcel locker in the lobby of my building)
- rivers
- safety
- Scott, my partner
- shoes – it’s easy to take for granted that I have shoes that protect my feet
- sleeping in on weekends
- slippers – they keep my feet warm!
- smell of the hand sanitizer I bought from the Sons of Vancouver Distillery – I santize my hands and feel like I’m in a distillery!
- soap – so simple, but it helps us stay healthy
- sourdough bread
- stand up comedy
- stand up freezer in my office – it lets me make big batches of food and then freeze them for later
- statutory holidays
- sunshine
- swimming
- Taco Tuesdays
- tea
- tears
- that I always have food to eat
- that I got to jump out of a plane
- that I have a safe, warm place to sleep every night
- that I have access to extended healthcare benefits
- that I have access to publicly funded healthcare if I need it
- that I have pensions to save for my retirement
- that I still have my jobs, when so many lost theirs in this pandemic
- Thomas, my nephew
- trails
- trees
- vacation days that allow me to take a break and recharge
- vaccines
- vanilla
- waterfalls
- Watson, my body cat – I’m thankful that he is healthy and happy and is his cuddly little treat-loving self
- weekends
- white boards
- wine