- We perceive our world based on what we believe; we pick and choose what to hear, how to feel, assign meanings depending on how we've trained ourselves to think. Nothing bad about that, it's just what we do. Different people observe an event and can assign any number of meanings to it. Today I am thankful I've learned to seek out the people and events that inspire and lift the spirit; they are my living proof that there really is hope for humanity.
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - I am thankful that not everything in life has to be a crusade to have purpose.
"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." - I am thankful that I don't have to stand on one side of the fence or the other to be thankful. Life doesn't always come down to right or wrong, left or right, God or atheist, black or white. It's not that I lack the fortitude to choose one or the other, it's what the contrast says that is important. I am aware this is contradictory, my convictions rest on the side of a different fence, probably a side with purple grass, green skies, cats that speak perfect Italian and fairies that deliver pizza. The advantage is that this view makes all those possible.
"The color of truth is gray." - Today I am thankful for our low speed Omega juicer, and that I could afford to get one when we did. Eating healthy really is an inconvenience compared to the garbage on the market that passes for food, and the Omega Vert makes that a little less painful. One of the reasons I'm grateful is it only has five parts to clean. :-)
"True healthcare reform starts in your kitchen, not in Washington."
"Health is not simply the absence of sickness." - I am thankful for the rich, sweet smell of coconut. Usually I can sense it across the water coming off of surfboard wax, you can keep that bubbly gummy stuff!
"The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk." - I am thankful for Orwell's 1984. At the time it served as a warning against what not to do, and I was so sure the world would recognize it and not allow the nightmare to become our reality. Today it is, sadly, one of my most frequent references for where the world has gone wrong. Orwell's work of fiction is fast becoming a documentary.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever. The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: don’t let it happen. It depends on you." - I am thankful for potted plants. Cactus, flowers, succulents, anything that grows in a pot can be taken with you wherever you go maintaining a bond with the Earth in an artificial and plastic world.
"God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man." - I am thankful for the songs of the birds in San Diego. I don't know their names, at the very least there are mockingbirds and parrots (who escaped from a pet shop in the 50's,) but there are many more. Most of the tiny birds here have the most intricate and melodic songs I've ever heard. There are ones that greet me in the morning and when I arrive at work, I always stop to listen for a minute.
"The more often we see the things around us - even the beautiful and wonderful things - the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds - even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less."
California Mockingbird - I am thankful for the smell of spring. Anywhere you are in the country, as you're driving down a highway, windows down, promise of another summer on the way, it hits you. Sometimes it's the smell of blooming wild flowers or apple blossoms, other times the dank earthy funk of moss growth exploding, but always it's that flowery fragrance that tells you the world is awakening and summer is on the heels of the rebirth.
"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." - This one probably sounds like a cheat because it's so commonplace, but doing it anyway. I love the smell of fresh cut grass, and the feeling you get looking back over a lawn that not 20 minutes before looked like a motley wild field. I love the feeling that says "I did that," and it's a beautiful carpet on which dogs and children can play.
" ... the grass may look greener on the other side, but believe me, it's just as hard to cut." - I've alluded to this a few times in this list, but never said it directly. I am thankful for the most difficult times in my life and how they taught to respect people experiencing difficult times, to think twice before judging. My wife firmly believes - as do I - that every person, no matter how affluent their life is, should work at least once in retail or in the food service industry to gain an understanding of how difficult it is to deal with callous and selfish people. It would definitely make the world a better place.
"The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become." - I am thankful I have never dreaded Mondays. Well, I probably did at some point, maybe I'm too old to remember. I will admit I do feel just a little sad that the weekend is ending, I never feel mortified on Monday morning and dread another five days of work. Maybe that's because of #319, I have managed to live by the adage that if you hate your job you should do something else and have evolved into jobs that always manage to give me some level of satisfaction for whiling away eight hours of a day.
"Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday." - I am thankful for stairs. Every building I've ever worked in has had an elevator, which I only used one time, to go to the job interview. I now work on the fourth floor of a building and take the stairs, two at a time, all the way up, with at least two walking breaks a day. That's six double-steps on each half-flight for a total of 48 lifts over 96 steps at least three times a day, and am thankful my body still has the strength to traverse them (even if I am puffing a bit at the top. :-) )
"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs." - This is going to sound a little strange but it gives me a grin whenever it happens so . . . I am thankful that most of the people I know have no clue what I do for a living no matter how hard or long they attempt to coax an answer they can understand out of me. They walk away with simplifications that range from "computer programmer" to "web site designer" to "computer artist" after having justified the questions by expressing how their cousin or nephew or brother in law is an awesome computer programmer or web site designer or computer artist (and surely I must have heard of them.) It's okay though. The reason it makes me thankful is that there are things I do that no one wants to understand, and these are things that make me very good at what I do. And no, I'm not going to try to explain them to you here, you're not really interested. :-)
"This is what I do for a living. It's not who I am as a human being." - I am thankful for the feeling I get when I fold back the cover sheet and see a clean white sheet of watercolor stock the first time, a blinding white golden mean rectangle of emptiness I get to fill with my dreams and visions. They may be shallow visions, but they are still mine.
"I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires." - I cannot change the machines of government or industry or politics, those dragons are beyond the reach of any sword I own. Today I am thankful for the strength and ability to act on the things I can do something about.
"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest." - This weekend I'm pretty sure I'm going to be thankful for my full body rain suit. :-D San Diego has experienced an all time record drought, only .84 inches this year, but an unprecedented storm has hit and it's going to be a long wet one. We need it, I'm again thankful for the rain (#145.)
"I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?" - Last week I set a glass in the sink and the bottom hit the edge of another glass already there, it chipped the edge and sent a beautiful fracture down the side of it. It got me thinking that for all the broken, dropped, and otherwise mangled glasses and other fragile pieces in life, I am grateful for all the ones I managed to catch before they shattered.
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Today I am thankful for the people in my life that have made me part of their story. When a person shares their life and thoughts with you, you may hear complaints. You may hear selfishness, or ego, or other judgements that at their heart are really about you, not them. When a person shares themselves with you, it means you are important enough to them to hear that conversation. I hope to always tender those communications with the respect they deserve.
"If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share." - I am thankful that it's not always about me. Truthfully, it's rarely about me, and that's a pretty good thing, it allows me to turn my attention outward to dig in a shoulder and support.
"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." - Touched on in #208, I am thankful for the times I have to park a fair distance from the door when I go out shopping anywhere. I see people holding up traffic 10 or 20 cars deep so they can get that spot closest to the entrance, and ponder that I'm thankful I have legs that work and another chance to exercise them.
"Restore human legs as a means of travel. Pedestrians rely on food for fuel and need no special parking facilities." - I am thankful that I've never been in an epic natural disaster, or that anyone I know has lost loved ones due to storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes. Millions have died from nature's wrath and when I see them I wish I was in a position to be there and help, but I'm thankful fate has kept me out of harm's way.
"You can't spend the rest of your life tiptoeing around to try and avert disaster. It won't work. You'll just end up missing the life you have." - I am thankful for dirt, soil, and the plants and gardens that spring from them. The one thing I miss about owning a home is a large garden, I would spend hours working the soil, pulling weeds, engineering the even distribution of water, shoring up the roots of plants, and months watching seeds grow into harvest. There is something about working with the earth that always made it a holy exercise, it puts a person close to the source of the universe.
"The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there." - I am thankful for daylight saving time. I find it amusing that so many people waste the whole hour we get back every year complaining about losing one hour of sleep. I get an extra hour of sunshine to play, work, paint, live. Every day.
"Daylight Savings Time occurs because Chuck Norris hits snooze on his alarm clock." - I am thankful for days I can sleep in until 7 AM, days in which I have no responsibilities other than to get out of bed and do something awesome. First task: get up when I damn well please. :-D
"When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said 'No, I made a few mistakes.'" - I am thankful for rivers, not only for their utilitarian uses: sources of hydration and bathing, fishing, moving water over the planet, and giving us the calming sound of rushing water to sooth our spirit, but also for the way they create so many metaphors for our lives.
"For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one." - Today I appear to have contracted a head cold, but it reminds me I am thankful I almost never get sick these days. It's been over two years since I last had any kind of viral illness. I am pretty sure I remember the exact moment I caught it. People around my office have been sick; one afternoon I was fatigued and committed the ultimate sin - I rubbed my eyes. Always wash your hands, never rub your eyes. Oops.
"Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self." - Today I am thankful I have the presence of mind to share with people the ways they have inspired me, thankful just for the chance to say so. Too often people go through life unaware they are inspiring others, they begin to wonder, why am I doing this? Why do I care, why do I bother? No one is watching, no one notices, no one knows what I mean. The truth is, people DO notice, they just don't say so, and don't understand how powerful it is to break out of their safety zone for that one or two words that can change a person's day, week, their entire direction in life. Tell someone how awesome they are today. You'll find there's something in it for you, too.
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - I am thankful for the sound of a cat's purr. We don't event really understand the physiology of purring, but it's a communication that says I bring all the contentedness I need with me.
"If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr." - The day was unusually gray and overcast, I was driving through the neighborhood, and a woman was jogging up the hill. She wore bright day glow green running shoes that beamed like headlights out of darkness and for some reason the sight of those glowing spots of color made me grin. I am thankful for those unexpected surprises in life that makes us feel good without even really knowing why. There doesn't always have to be a reason.
"The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations."
Categories: About the Art
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