#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.  

#365Gratitude Day 247:Aunt Missy

My wife Missy loves children. We don't have any of our own, but we're aunt and uncle to several kids both through our family and our family-of-choice. 

We're down visiting with our friends Kevin and Kacie and their little boy. He's completely adorable, and we haven't seen him since he was just a few weeks old. 

Missy loves him, and it's mutual. Watching them interact makes my heart get all melty.  She has so much love to give.  

#365Gratitude Day 246:On the road again

Missy and I drove down last night from our house in Virginia to visit our friends Kevin and Kacie in South Carolina.  There was a huge storm coming through the area as we drove, Hermine.

We were prepared.  We had good rain jackets in the car, plenty of snacks, a full tank of gas, and most importantly, a shared sense of adventure and patience.  We knew we wanted to get there, but it didn't matter how long it would take.

Missy started us off, letting me rest for the first leg of our trip.  At a certain point, the rain was very heavy, the traffic slow, and visibility poor, so we got off the highway, and pulled off on a dark country road to switch places.

As we drove, we listened to a great audiobook, John Scalzi's Old Man's War.  We talked about all sorts of things, everything and nothing, in that way that only people who love one another very much can do.

We stopped for french fries.

We talked about our dreams.

It was long, tiring, and entirely great.

Missy and I have been together for almost twelve years, married for almost nine of them.  There's a Lao-tzu saying I love, "a good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent upon arriving."

I'm loving the trip so far.