Remembering to be grateful

This time of year makes me think that I don't remember to be grateful enough the rest of the year. I am grateful for so many things.

I have wonderful friends and family. I am healthy and have a nice place to live. I have a good job that I like. And I am almost done with my Anatomy and Physiology class that has been taking up all my free time lately!

Also, just looking at the picture with this post reminds me of the opportunity I had two summers ago to spend a week at this beach, the best beach I have ever been to! This is the beach at Shell Island, in Panama City Beach, Florida. This place definitely ranks up at the top of my happy places.

Another thing I am doing differently this year to help me remember to be grateful for all I have and not focus on what I don't have is that I am donating money every month to a charity called Modest Needs.

Right now, this very second, I am being grateful that I have a warm fleece lined sweatshirt to wear and a microwave to make me instant hot water for tea because it is cold in my house.

I am visualizing the warm, sandy beach and hearing the lap of the waves as they gently crest and break upon the shoreline. I can almost feel the sun baking me as I sit in the shallows of the ocean and smell the saltyness in the air. I see some dolphins playing out in the distance. Life is good.

Old photos are great

I just came across this picture of me when I was three. This was one of the few pictures with me at a young age when my bathing suit actually stayed on. At that age, I remember that I used to love to take off my bathing suit as I was running through the sprinklers in our yard. I remember my mom running after me and trying to get me to put my bathing suit back on. She also took some pictures of me half naked and naked running through the sprinklers. She said it was because I looked so cute running around the yard like that but I think that she was thinking ahead for the teen years when she would need the parental leverage that embarassing naked pictures could provide. Smart woman, darn her!

In Honor of Vermont

I grew up in a town right outside of Burlington, Vermont. So it was particularly pleasing to see that Burlington has been named the healthiest city in the United States by the CDC. In honor of that, I thought I would list out some other amazing things about Burlington, a city that I love.

1) Ben and Jerry's started here. My favorite flavor surviving flavor is Coconut Almond Fudge Chip. My favorite flavor that is now unfortunately in the flavor graveyard was Dastardly Mash.

2) The best chocolate in the world is made right here.

3) American Flat Bread pizza is a short walk away from Church Street (the cool outdoor shopping area downtown). They make their own beer and flat bread pizza to die for.

4) There is a beautiful lake called Lake Champlain that has miles of bike trails and high scenic zen factor.

5) Montreal is only a couple of hours away.

The list could go on but these are some highlights for me. I love to come home to visit in the fall when the leaves have turned their beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. That combined with the smell of wood smoke drifting from the chimneys, apple picking, fresh cider to drink, a cone of Ben and Jerry's, some flat bread pizza, and friends. That is the good life!

Reading a good book with a hot cup of tea: the perfect fall activity

I just started reading a book that was in the new books rack at my library. I am so glad I found it because it is an amazingly rich story, with layers of details and emotions. Stories inside stories. It is called "Going Down South" by Bonnie J. Glover. If you have a chance to pick this up and read it, it will be worth your time. It is a story about 3 generations of women in one family in the south in the 1960s. It is filled with their pain and mistakes. And throughout it is threaded with their love. A love for each other that, however imperfect it may be, is deep and abiding and life changing.

If you read it or have read it, please pull up a keyboard and tell me your thoughts about the book. Can you relate to Daisy. If so, why? If not, why not and with whom do you relate the most?

The smell of fall leaves makes me happy

Fall
red
orange
gold touched leaves
tumbling
gliding
inexorably falling
from on high glory
to earthbound senescence
beauty eroding
fading
circling back
green buds
unfurling