An Attitude of Grattitude

It is 6:05am and I am still nestled cozily in my bed as I write this... It's been lovely the last few days because my body seems to have finally accepted my conscious desire to return to my once natural habit of waking up early. And by that I mean that when my alarm clock goes off at 5:47am my instinct is not to leap from my bed barely conscious, hit the snooze button and then immediatelty collapse back into unconsiousness. No, this morning especially, I hit the snooze button to silence the beeping but then I lay in bed vey much awake and conscious, my mind racing somewhat with thoughts of the days both ahead of and behind me.

In a few hours I will meet up with Robin (who has been in Oakville with her parents for the last week and) who will be taking the go-train in this morning with her dad so that she and I can spend the day hangin' out in Toronto together before we meet her guy, Ethan, at the train station tonight and then all head back out to Oaky-ville together. Ethan is coming from their home in Burlington, Vermont to join us all for the weekend partly because there is a wedding reception that we are all going to attend on Saturday afternoon. A guy that Robin and I went to school with, whose family is longtime friends with Robin's family, got married in Vancouver this Fall, but his bride's family is from T.O. so they are having a reception here this Saturday.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the day ahead with Robin. I made a mental note to remember to use my lovely digital camera that her parents gave me a few months ago and take lots of pictures of us hanging out. And that thought got me thinking about how thankful I am...

Thankful to have that camera, because taking pictures really reminds me of and makes me feel connected to my grandma, who was taken from my life so suddenly and brutally eight years ago this month. It's hard to believe that eight years have passed since then...

I am also so thankful to have Robin and her parents in my life... I am thankful for all that they have done for me in the past, to support me and ensure my safety and success in life, but I am especially thankful for the way that my relationship with both Robin and her parents has grown and evolved; I am thankful for the deeper and more mature love, friendship and sense of family that we now share...

And as I lay in bed thinking about how grateful I am for my relationships with Robin and her family, I got to thinking about other relationships that I am thankful for...

I spent a lovely evening last night with my friend Devon, and I found myself thinking about how thankful I am for our friendship. How great it is to sit across from her, listening and speak ing so honestly and easily for hours upon hours! I am so thankful for the mutally loving, wise and supportive relationship that we have...

And speaking of (or rather, thinking of) mutually loving, wise and supportive relationships that have deepened and matured over the years... My mind then wandered to thoughts of my friend Mark, whose birthday it is this friday and with whom I had the pleasure of once again having a home-cooked (yes, he's still on the cooking kick) meal with on Monday evening. Of course I am thankful that he likes to invite me over while he experiments with new and delicious recipes, but I am especially thankful for the quality time that these get-togethers afford us; I sit on the stool at his kitchen counter, occassionally making myself useful by chopping something, and we chat as he prepares dinner, the eating of which is naturally conduscive to even more chatting. I love it.

And now, after recording all of those thoughts of gratitude that came to me as I lay in the darkness this morning, I should probably sign off and get myself up and about and ready to start my day...

So my dear readers, at whatever point during whatever day that you end up reading this, I challenge you to think of some thing(s) or people that you are thankful for.... And feel free to share your thoughts of gratitude with me via a comment here!

*NAMASTE*