- I am thankful for fresh vegetables and fruits, grown from tiny seeds, nurtured by the earth, water, and sun, and the labors humans have put to them to bring them to my table. I know, veggies don't hold a candle to pizza or doughnuts in terms of yummy, but the last couple years they've shown me the superpowers of healing and health, and brought back a lot of my body's vitality and youthfulness. It's the only health insurance that really matters.
"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon." - I am thankful for wishes that didn't come true. If I had become a rock star, astronaut, beach bum without responsibility or any of the other egotistic aspirations I wished for in my youth, I'd probably be dead or one of the people I don't like. I certainly wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet my beautiful daughter and the love of my life.
"Careful what you wish for, you just might get it." - I am thankful for surfriding pelicans. Yesterday as a wave crested in front of me, too small to ride, a pelican dropped from the sky to the left and began gliding along the lip of the wave. It passed about six feet in front of me, I could see the feathers of its wingtips tremble with each touch on the water, feeling it's edge, sending little bursts of water skyward, dancing along the wave like any surfer. The swell lifed me up and I watched the pelican continue the right, following the wave's crest for a good 200 feet, until the wave curled over and she flew skyward.
"Animals are like little children a bit. They're simple. They don't have politics driving them." - I am thankful that I what I do every day for living doesn't define who I am. Someday the two will merge, and while I work, I'm 100% dedicated and all in, I actually like what I do, but it doesn't define me. It's important to know the difference between what you do for a living and who you are. It prevents the dramas and difficulties of work from being stressful.
"We work to become, not to acquire." - I am thankful for the feeling of cool grass beneath my feet on a spring night and sand between my toes on any beach day.
"There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice." -
I am thankful for Kirk's Coco Castile, all natural coconut soap. Coconut oil, vegetable glycerine, no perfumes or artificial detergents. I don't even remember how or why I started using it.
"I wonder how much it would take to buy a soap bubble, if there were only one in the world." - I am thankful that when things don't work out, all it really means is I was meant to take a different path.
"Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street." - I am thankful I have no allergies, not to pollen, medicines, peanuts, strawberries, and God forbid seawater. I once knew someone who was allergic to exposure to sunshine, can you imagine the anguish of living without feeling the sun on your face? Well, I **claim** an allergy to negativity, but I'm pretty sure that is a choice.
"The difference between an itch and an allergy is about one hundred bucks." - Today I am thankful for the things that cannot be destroyed or suppressed by external forces, the things that are mine and mine alone over which I have complete control: creativity, choices, desires, and a mind that cannot rest unless it's asleep, and even then is vivid with dreams, sometimes nightmares, I cannot explain (or do I guess I would want to!)
"Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now." - Today I am thankful for phytoplankton, the single celled organism that is responsible for about half our oxygen, all the oxygen for marine life, and the basis of the food chain in our oceans.
"We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life. To say we do not care is to say in the most literal sense that 'we choose death.' " - Today I am thankful for the simple force of gravity. It is what binds together the matter of the universe and acts within us, drawing like minds together as surely as it does with heavenly bodies.
"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free." - I've referenced it a few times, I don't know how I could have missed it. Maybe it's a bitter irony or even hypocrisy that I seek to appreciate the little things and overlooked the most frequent flier in my life. I am thankful for COFFEE, the magic elixir that greets me every day and gives me an extra bump into creativity and vigor. I'm also thankful for the path it takes to my cup, the years of growth from trees, the work and sweat that goes into harvest, and the process that grinds the beans and brings them to my cup.
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." - Today I am thankful that each of us has the greatest power possible, the power of individuality. Too often fear or insecurity keeps our self expression hidden as our greatest secret, safely locked away for fear that someone will chip it's gleaming surface, pull back some veil to reveal it as invalid, never knowing it is the one thing in us that is invincible. What makes us individuals is our strongest asset, let it shine.
"In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized." - I am thankful for all the people who have died doing what they loved; not for their deaths or the sadness left to the living, but for the inspiration that in their last moments they were closest to that which made them whole. Too many of the living pounce on this idea and dismiss it's significance, that we should LIVE doing what we love. This is true. But to cross over doing what makes one's heart soar is the best final statement of our lives.
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." -
I am thankful for what are possibly the funniest moments in movie history. No matter how many times I see it, it always leaves me laughing to tears.
"Is that... is that hair gel?" - I am thankful for pockets, especially pants with thigh pockets, there is usually a fattie for the wallet, a skinny for the cell phone, the usual hip pockets for keys, and sometimes a couple thin ones for pens. Back pockets were never really meant to be used - it only takes a few hours carrying a wallet in a back pocket to feel the stress of it throwing my back out of alignment, it's like a parasite or tumor on the top of your butt. Wallets and cell phones rest invisibly and out of the way in thigh pockets. I have a flight jacket my sister gave me years ago that I sometimes wear just because of the total coolness of the pockets it has, on the arms as well as a couple hidden pockets inside the vest. I only have to slip into my jammers for surfing to realize how lost I am without pockets.
"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets." - I am thankful for all (most of) the accidental discoveries that have lead to important technologies in our lives. The discovery of radioactivity, penicillin, Teflon, Velcro, microwaves, even silly putty were all born out of accidental actions while someone was looking for an answer to something else. Accidental discoveries also show that we will always find answers to our questions, just not the answers we're looking for. :-)
"There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed." - I am thankful for the person who gave me her parking ticket at the flat rate parking lot downtown yesterday, and not just for the $13 it saved me. This ticket had passed from her hands to mine, and before that from someone else; when I left I passed it on to other travelers parking there for a short while, and who knows how many people yesterday used the same parking ticket? It was a talisman representing UBUNTU, threading it's way through a network of humans, powered only by our connection to each other. Each day our thoughts, a small gesture of generosity, a few unexpected words can thread us together, knit our web more tightly than politics or religion if we just choose to make it so.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects." - I am thankful for surfline.com, where you can see live surf around the world any day. Remote video cameras are everywhere these days, and this is one use I particularly appreciate. The amount of work that has to go into something like that is huge, and I'm so grateful someone acted on it and executed it so perfectly. Looking at some of the far away breaks, it does make me a little jealous. :-)
"A security cam is one small part of a much larger universe of cams. The much larger effect, socially, politically and economically, is going to come from a much larger trend." - Today I am thankful for the writings of Mark Twain, who's work came to me at a time when there was a naive wonder and mystery in the world in the most basic things. It was so exciting floating the river with Huck and Tom, I laughed to tears at the Jumping Frog and About Barbers, and his insights taught me many things that I carry daily.
"He now made a handle of my nose, to assist him shaving the corners of my upper lip, and it was by this bit of circumstantial evidence that I discovered that a part of his duties in the shop was to clean the kerosene-lamps." - I am thankful for swap meets, yard sales, and second hand shops. I almost never buy anything in them, but as I walk through, there are always items that catch my attention, and wonder what history they have and how they wound up here. Every now and then you find a gem that deserves a second chance and only needs a little polishing, fixing, or TLC.
"Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all." - I am thankful for the non-word "facepalm." It is so useful, appropriate, and provides adequate comic relief just when one needs it.
Politics: facepalm.
Religion: facepalm.
The term "government organization:" facepalm.
Rumors and myths spread as fact via Facebook: facepalm.
Spending a frustrating amount of time looking for keys to find them in your pocket: facepalm.
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." - Today I'm going to steal a thankful item, seen on teh Internetz: Let's all take a moment and be thankful spiders, especially big ones, didn't evolve with wings.
"Birds I am fine with - spiders are an entirely different matter." - I am thankful for motor skills, the fine and intricate controls we have over our bodies and fingers that allow us to do everything from pushing thread through the eye of a needle (with only a few tries) to meeting a ball with a swinging bat.
"Happiness comes when we test our skills towards some meaningful purpose." - I am thankful for those musical moments with a song that has the absolute power to captivate, a song that is bound for history. You're standing in another room, or driving your car, standing in line at a store, and out of the white noise of bland, regurgitated, and respun melodies that have no other purpose than to keep the airwaves live comes a tune that reaches out and grabs you, compels you to turn up the volume, listen for the words, let it connect with your life, makes you want to learn to sing along. Think of the first time you heard Stairway, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Raise Your Glass, or whatever suits you. There's more to it than just the music.
"Words make you think. Music makes you feel. A song makes you feel a thought." - I am thankful for the nights I can see the moon in any of it's phases, from a curved sliver to a full shining disc. Last night's crescent was a particularly nice one, hanging in the spring sky.
"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." - I am thankful for mornings in general. I never used to be, forcing myself awake and crawling out of a warm comfy place was fairly objectionable. I'd hit the snooze several times then finally jump up, annoyed, and that's how my day started. Annoyed. These days I wake automatically, usually around 4:00 AM, and the things I plan to do begin to churn through my mind. Let's get started, then. I rise while everyone is sleeping, hit the coffee, step outside in the the cool morning air rising before the growing sunrise, stretch the slumber out of my muscles and just . . . begin. It always starts as a good day because I say so.
"Do not say, 'It is morning,' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name." - You know, I really don't thank myself enough. This entire list has been about the things the universe has brought to me, and like most people I never really think to thank myself for all the decisions that were right ones (even the ones that hurt,) and all the choices that have allowed me to say YES. Maybe it's a fear of being self absorbed. Today I thank myself for giving myself a little credit when I need it, and letting the universe guide me to all these new spaces. So should you.
"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
"A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror." - I am thankful for traffic signals and road signs, even though they are mostly perceived by many drivers as "general suggestions."
"I hooked up my accelerator pedal in my car to my brake lights. I hit the gas, people behind me stop, and I'm gone." - I am thankful for abundance that comes to those in my life, and the joy that it gives me to see it. I have an aquaintance I met at Ocean Beach, his name is Tommy. One of those mellow, easygoing surfers, a great guy, I see him every weekend morning and we often paddle out together. Like many of the homeless at O.B. Tommy isn't a wandering "bum," he had two jobs, it just wasn't enough to maintain an address so he lived in his car, an aging 80's Toyota Corolla, with his dog Aiko. He is one of the happiest guys I've ever known, a little surf, food and time for Aiko, a fair gypsy life, he was happy. A few weeks ago, he told me he'd scored bigtime, got a job with one of the largest banjo manufacturers in the U.S. Yesterday his Corolla was replaced by a new dark green Pontiac Vibe, which comes stock with roof racks for his board. Better yet, next week he moves into an apartment not two blocks from the beach. I'm so happy for him, it was his time. 2014 is the year of transition, for individuals, for the world, I can feel it in my bones.
"One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others."
Categories: About the Art
Add a Comment