Attitude of Gratitude – there are so many things when you look for them.

Can I come up with 25 things to be grateful for today?

Yes, I think I can.

#1. I don’t always sleep very well, but last night I had a good night’s sleep, only waking up very briefly a couple of times

#2. When I had a quick look at Steemit, I found lots of replies to my posts and comments, so was grateful for the interactions I have with my fellow Steemians.

#3. As I come off the fast, I’m finding more and more safe foods, and have increased my calories almost back to a normal level.

#4. As I recover from the food reactions I’ve had, my energy is improving.

#5. When I was feeling trashed after a hard year last year, I decided it was time to start getting regular acupuncture again. After weekly visits for about two months, by Christmas my energy was much better. John has been away over Xmas, but he’s back now, and after a three week break, I’m back to weekly sessions.

#6. My acupuncturist works out of one of the few old buildings downtown that hasn’t been renovated. The lift is old school, with the door that you have to heave open yourself. But what I realised today is that I appreciate what might be the only old lift left in Wellington. A little glimpse into times gone by.

#7. John has just come back from Christmas in Boston with his children, which was rather a shock to his system, going from a hot NZ summer. As he was banging in the needles, he was rattling off a number of figures about how cold it was, though the only one I remember is wind chill factor -26! So I’m grateful that it never gets that cold in Wellington.

#8. I got a new phone for Xmas from @sift666’s mum – a Galaxy Note 5 – and @sift666 has inherited my Note 3, to replace his old dunger (kiwi for a rattly old thing that doesn’t work properly, usually a car). While I was in town I was going in to get them swapped over.

#9. So I went into the Spark (NZ Telecom) store. A helpful lad transferred my contacts, etc and my sim card to the new phone, then moved @sift666’s to my old phone. And even better, it’s a free service.

#10. Going home, the first bus that came along was an Airport bus. These are an express service going to the airport, that only stop at a few stops once out of the city, so gets me home quicker. And they have lovely padded seats and free WiFi. It does cost a little more, but it’s worth it.

#11. Once I’m off the bus, I could walk home (only about 400m) in about 5 minutes. Or I can stop in to the organics store or the supermarket, as I go right past them. Very handy.

#12. Something not so nice, is that as I walk through Kilbirnie shops, there are nearly always beggars sitting on the side of the footpath. I don’t know their stories, and how they came to be in this situation. But I am profoundly grateful that my circumstances mean I will never need to beg on the street.

#13. By the time I left the shopping centre for the last couple of minutes walk home, I was carrying 3 heavy shopping bags. But I’m grateful that I have the strength, stamina and physical ability to do that.

#14. When I got to our front door, there were a few deliveries waiting there. I appreciate that we can order so many things, and have them on our doorstep the next day.

#15. When I got back, @sift666 went out for a massage. Thank God It’s Friday, and apart from the occasional phone call, we usually don’t work Fridays. So I had the house to myself, and spent an enjoyable couple of hours trawling through my feed.

#16. This wonderful article from @wwf is so good that I resteemed it, something I very rarely do.

#17. A post from @alexbeyman reminded me I'm glad we don’t live in a place where we need to buy heated slippers.

#18. I’m in the lead on @trevor.george’s Snakes and Ladders game.

#19. I’ve been making small batches of soup as I come off the fast. But tonight I appreciated my big stockpot, which meant I could make one big batch of soup so can make big batch of soup, enough for 4 days. Wanna know how it went? Dead easy…

• Chop up 3 red onions and sauté them in fat of your choice (I used lard)
• Turn the heat down, put the lid on and let them soften over a low heat
• Meanwhile chop up 5 large brown (portobello) mushrooms
• Add them, stir round over a slightly higher heat for a bit, then lower the heat, lid back on, and let them soften some more.
• Meanwhile chop up a head of broccoli. Add that along with 1.5 litres of stock. Bring to a simmer, and let cook till broccoli is soft.
• Blend and season to taste.

It might not be 3 veges you’d put together, but they are currently the ones I’m doing ok on. It came out pretty well, though I might use more mushroom next time, to get a more intense flavour.

#20. I love my stick blender which makes blending soups so easy.

#21. The cryptos look like they might be coming back up.

#22. As I write this post, I’m appreciative of the technology that allows us to do all this – the internet, my computer, and my new big monitor that I inherited when @sift666 bought an even bigger one. (I have a post half written, that goes into this in more depth.)

#23. I’m glad I don’t live in the worrying kind of universe that @nonameslefttouse inhabits, where innocent words like post get autocorrected to vagina. That would have made #22 a bit strange, and #23 even stranger.

#24. I appreciate any and all votes that I may or may not get on this post.

#25. And lastly, I’m going to enjoy our comfy chairs and largeish TV when we go down after dinner and watch a bit of something.

I issue a challenge to you all to find 25 or more things relating specifically to today that you can be grateful for. If you post about it, let me know!

Thanks for reading.

Images from Pixabay, even the soup one!

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