So, this is pretty meta, but my gratitude today is this blog. Not this actual post, that would be too meta.
But seriously, it's the blog.
I started it back in June, 2014. I've written in it fairly faithfully since, while experimenting with different levels of commitment.
Back in January, I made the decision to stay caught up, to do my best to blog each day, or at the very least get caught up when I get behind by a few days.
I'm feeling damn good about it. One of the things which has jumped out at me in particular today is how that practice, that discipline, is encouraging me to pay attention to mindfulness in general. It's got me slowing down, listening to bird song (right now in fact), appreciating the moment.
I can be incredibly hard on myself. I often withhold from me the same gentle kindness and compassion I show most everyone and everything else. But then I'll remember to slow down and appreciate well, everything.
I love being alive. I love the tiniest aspects about it.
I love how when I tromped downstairs a bit ago, with the intention to catch up the blog this morning, my cats followed me downstairs to get fed. I love how I sat, still in my pajamas and diaper, and wrote my gratitudes, as the sun came up. I love that I can hear the not-quite-silence of the house, with the refrigerator humming quietly to itself in the kitchen, and hear my own breath amongst the sound of my typing.
It's beautiful, the whole damn thing.
And this blog, this practice of journaling, it helps me see it. Daily.