I'm grateful that my visual mindfulness journal, currently focused almost exclusively on food choice -- but soon to be expanded to other areas of my existence -- is doing good things for me. I'm remembering my vitamins and other supplements more often, I'm able to see at a glance where I need to adjust my food choices, and I'm also able to give myself some much-needed pats on the back! Mindfulness rocks! Now I have to get moving, too. All things in good time.

I'm grateful for the job that made today fly by, and keeps my docket full of important work.

I'm grateful for the wonderful man I married, who fills my life with love and caring and comfort and companionship and ... so much more.

I'm grateful for two daughters who are healthy and stretching themselves to reach their goals -- each on her own path, each outstandingly wonderful in her own ways.

It really seems ungrateful to narrow my focus on a few of the wonderful people and things in my life ... I'm grateful for so much!

Technologies!

So, to be honest, without technology, my current job wouldn't even exist, and the University certainly wouldn't need me to help support instructors in their use of a complicated software application. I am grateful for technology for providing me a pretty good way to make a living. And I truly enjoy almost everything about my job and the people I work with.

But I'm also grateful for technologies because they are fun and useful and exciting.







Facebook lets me keep in touch with people that I would normally not have contact with, except on very rare occasions. Blogs let me express myself here, where I'm not sure anyone is reading ... but ... the important part is that I get to say what's on my mind and in my heart, with the tantalizing knowledge that, at the very least, I know a few people that I care about will wander into this space sometime and get a glimpse inside.

Our laptop allows me to sit comfortably and companionably on the living room sofa near my husband while the television presents its disturbing and/or amusing fare ... and I don't even have to pay attention, because I'm otherwise occupied!

Today, another kind of technology arrived at our door. Its design, I believe, originated in the 1950s, but ours is brand new. It looks "space aged," and it floats on air. I'm looking forward to using it!



Technology ... I guess that makes me some kind of geek, eh?

Oh! Did I mention the technology I'm grateful for that allows me to capture images of my world, my loved ones, and to learn more about myself in the process? Ah, yes ... I'm grateful for my camera and Flickr and Picasa, and ... yeah, all that. :-)

Taking video of Lake Superior with my new camera!

DSCF1024
Originally uploaded by Gerry Bergtrom

Thanks to my colleague, Gerry Bergtrom, who was at the D2L User Conference (Fusion 2007) with me in Duluth last week, I actually have access to a photo of me using my new camera. Here I am, fascinated with the ability to take MOVING PICTURES ... so I'm doing a video of water movement!

It takes so little to make me happy!

Oh! And ...

I'm also VERY grateful to my darling husband for getting me a birthday gift I will continue to use for years and years and years, which has already brought me untold joy and delight, and which made possible almost every picture in the previous post: a new camera with MEGA pixels, and GIGAbytes of USB storage. Thanks, also, to Shannon and Josh and Amy for camera cases, and extra battery! Wow! My cup runneth over! It's just what I've been "techno-lusting" after, and more!

Being "heard"

I have been writing a lot lately. Most of it is really just reporting, nothing creative, except that an occasional turn of phrase makes me smile or laugh or get a little choked up -- because words affect me that way, and after all, they're words designed to convey MY thoughts and emotions, so if *I* don't "get it," who on earth *will*?

So I've enjoyed the experience of expressing myself through words, but I seldom have the opportunity to get direct feedback that tells me I've been heard. The electronic medium, for all it's "out in the world" and "public" characteristics, is a lonely place of you don't hear from anyone that they're actually reading what you've written.

And, to be honest, one of the joys of writing is knowing someone else has "heard" me. (Not necessarily AGREED, but at least "heard.")

Tonight, I am grateful to have been "heard" by by dear husband, John, who took a lot of time to read all the postings I've made at this blog, as well as all my Thinking Out Loud posts.

I used to worry, years ago, that someone would read my journals. Now I know that even the people I live with are simply too involved in their own lives and their own dramas to care enough to seek out and actually take the time to read anything I've written, unless I actually ask them to.

Thus far, John has been a willing reader when I've asked him. Amy has been, too, especially the posts about her friends. Shannon's read most of what I've written about our sick kitty (who is no longer SICK, thank goodness! yea!) -- but the poor girl is so busy with her studies and teaching and writing research papers and presentations, that reading her mother's blogs is hardly a recreational activity. I completely understand.

So it makes me that much more grateful for the time spent with John tonight, as he read my thoughts from weeks ago and yesterday, and for the feeling he "gets it," too.

Peace

1. I'm grateful for another sunny day, and the time and space to enjoy it just the way I like -- quietly, in my own home, with kitties. And loudly, on a playground, with a 3-year-old who calls me Grandma.

2. I'm grateful for a few minutes when Amy is taking the 3-year-old back to the playground, so I have a moment to be online, and John has a few moments to nap. 3-year-olds and playgrounds can be tiring for Grampas, too.

3. Peace. The world may be at war, by my little corner is filled with sunshine and love today, and I am immensely grateful for the grace that allows this miracle.