#365Gratitude Day 252:Sarah & Caitlin & Mako

I went for a walking workout this morning.  

Tried a different set of streets in my neighborhood, found a new, rather steep hill (ouch), and then came back home up a familiar hill (ouch again).

It's been a while since I did this, and I pushed myself, but not too much.  In the end I did almost 2.5 miles, in about 45 minutes.  I sweated, I panted, I struggled and I kept going.

It was a funny mix of old and new.  I wore my very oldest running shirt, and most recent pair of running shoes (and headphones).  I went to new places, and on my way back, even saw new things.

Like this:

Sarah and Caitlin, whoever they are, have gone this way before.  I have too.  But I never saw that they had been there before I was winded enough to stop to look.

I'm very much in the place of getting in shape again.  I've got my eye on it.  And I'll admit, there's some shame in there, at having lost fitness I have to go find again.  But bumping into Sarah and Caitlin helped, is helping me see something about it. 

There's something very powerful about treading old familiar roads with new purpose.  The road might be the same, but the person walking on it can't help but be different.

Thanks you two, whoever you are.

#365Gratitude Day 251:Keep on Turning

I have this age playing friend, Dixie. We've known one another for years, bump into each other at random from time to time, and just really like one another. ​

I randomly messaged her yesterday, and she told me I'd already been on her mind that day. She heard a song about racing a big wheel and it got her thinking of me.  

So I made her a picture.  

I love having good friends.  

#365Gratitude Day 250:I'm game

When we were down visiting Kevin & Kacie (for her birthday), one of the presents she got was a kind of color-and-shape based domino game called Qwirkle. ​

We played several rounds of it. Turns out Missy is ​really damn good​ at it. ​

I liked it and commented how it'd be awesome if there was an iOS version of it. ​

There is!​

I got it and played it with some robots yesterday in the bathroom at work.  

Please note that these are in-game robots, we don't actually have bathroom robots at my office, so far as I know.  

Anyhow, it's a kickass game that is really fun for age players, and can be easily played across the Internet too, through Game Center.  

Anyone up for a game? 

#365Gratitude Day 249:That's no accident

So Missy and I are traveling home from South Carolina, going up route 85. We're in Norlina, NC, right before the Virginia border when what ​didn't ​happen, ​almost ​happened. ​

​We're in a pack of cars, traveling at high speed through a one-lane "construction pipe", a temporary roadway made from jersey barriers. Somewhere several cars up the line from us, someone brakes hard, and it causes a cascade of braking all the way down the line. 

Missy slams on our brakes, with both feet. I hear the tires squeal, and mentally prepare myself for us to hit the car in front of us, and perhaps be hit by the cars behind us. ​

It's gonna be bad, I think. This is one of those multi-car monster crashes you hear about on the news. ​

​But miraculously we come to a full stop without impact in either direction. And the car behind us, a blue ​something​ comes rocketing past us on our right side. 

At the time we were on the phone with Squee, too. ​

The three of us collectively caught our breath.  ​

Bless her quick reactions and really very cute feet

A few minutes later we cross into Virginia.  

I commented to both of them how grateful I was that we didn't crash, didn't have an accident, and how I've frequently had nightmares about getting into one, or hearing Squee get into one, while we were on the phone. (We talk on the phone while driving a lot, because of our long distance relationship.)

We were all really shaken by it, all grateful too.  

Even days later though there's something about the whole incident and my gratitude that's stuck with me. It has to do with perspective.  

In that moment, the likelihood of a terrible  accident was  high.  I was grateful that things didn't work out the way they looked like they probably would. But there was (and still are) other ways to frame that.  

I am also simultaneously grateful that:

• My brakes work so well.  
• Missy has great reflexes.  
• The guy behind us managed to slip to the side.  
• No one was hurt.  

I see that I can see my expectations fall away  as well as my mindful attention to what is actually happening .  They're two sides of the same coin, yin and yang. 

Each moment I'm alive, there's an infinite number of things not happening, and an equally huge number of things that are.

I see that when I'm present, mindful, and open I have a limitless power to use that. Even now I have this awareness that I'm being constantly reborn into the present moment, constantly moving through an infinite sea of possibilities, outcomes, choices, and actions.  

It's magnificent. 

#365Gratitude Day 248:Nostalgia in the Bathroom

So Kevin and Kacie have this book in their guest bathroom, Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader. 

I know this book. Like, this actual copy. It used to sit in Kacie's bathroom at our house in Alexandria, when she, Missy, and I lived together. I have read every page of it. Frequently while being implored by Kacie or Missy to hurry up in there!

Kacie and I dated for years.  We broke up amicably a while ago. She's since gotten married, moved far away (twice!), and had a kid.  

I've since moved twice, changed jobs twice, and many other life changes too.  

But we will always care about one another. We have history .  That is really a big deal for me.

I do want Missy and Kacie both to know that I didn't write this blog post while in the bathroom either.