Thankfulness

...Or How Amanda is Returning to Her Roots.

Maybe not my roots, but back in the day. You see, after I moved into my house in Gilchrist and got settled in, I decided I needed a visualization of the good things in my life. I got about twenty feet of butcher paper and hung it up in the hallway. I started a list, everyday wrote down the things I was thankful for. It really helped, especially on the bad days, to realize how much greatness I had in my life. And even on those crappy days, I was able to find something good out of it. Now finding that one good thing might have taken me all evening to figure out, but eventually, I always did.

Two things recently made me realize that I need to get back to this. One was a talk I had with my Uncle GG on Saturday. We were walking through his 125 acres and looking at the trees and plants and flowers and he would stop and say "What do you hear?," "What do you smell?" Questions that should be easily answered but I found I rarely take the time to do it that it was tough. "I hear birds" I told him, "What kind?" he replied. I had no idea. It was even to tough to answer what I saw. Flowers. Grass. He pushed, what color? What kind? He reminded me that God offers so much to us, we just have to stop long enough to appreciate it. Needless to say, I spent most of the afternoon and the evening with my Uncle GG. I learned a lot, I LISTENED a lot. It was eye opening. We appreciated the small things in life. I ate bark from a tree that made my tongue tingle, I learned different types of flowers and trees that I walk past every day, I rode a tractor to my Uncle Walton's, I watched the sunset and I experienced the night sky in all its glory. It was a refreshing day and I've decided I need to slow down and enjoy what's around me instead of taking it for granted and wanting more than I need.

And right now, just thinking about Saturday gives me such inspiration of how I want to change my life. So much that I forgot the second thing that made me want to do this. Maybe I'll remember eventually. So I am going to try and post everyday at least one thing I am thankful for that day. This will be in addition to my normal rants and sharing of crazy stories, so no worries, those will still be making appearances.

OH! I remembered the second thing. Kristen, poster on my 365 photo blog, also has her own blog called Question of the Day where she poses questions (obviously) everyday. I will admit that I'm not as great as keeping up with her blog as she is with mine, but I do read the questions everyday. Yesterday, she brought up our New Year's resolutions and I was doing very well on keeping up with them. I remembered that this was my resolution about 2 years back, so I'm bringing it back for the last half of 2010. Who says you have to start a resolution on January 1st? So here goes nothing.

06.02.10
I'm thankful for...
-my Starbucks Barista this morning who was more than happy to accommodate my special request AND gave me the broken orange cranberry scone for no charge.
-the Deli worker at HEB who also accommodated my special request and charged me $2.99 for a grilled cheese sandwich instead of the $5.99 the other sandwiches were going for.
-the little girl in the mall who reminded me that kindness to strangers isn't dead.
-all of you who read this and give me an outlet when it's too late to talk on the phone. :D