To know me as an adult you might never guess at the level of self-discipline I exhibited as a child. I was a kid who played outside in the summer sure, but also would practice (my accordion) for 4-8 hours a day. Not because someone else said I needed to, but because I enjoyed it.

Anywho. The point there is that I don’t generally show that kind of self-discipline in my life anymore. One place I’m trying is in this little “Grateful” series.

So, without further obfuscation, here is a short list of a few of the things for which I’m grateful this week (in no particular order).

• Rain – even though some might say we’ve had more than our fair share the last couple of days, I’m grateful that it’s raining. For myself it means I don’t have to water that new sod so much. For the farmers… well, hopefully it means crops are good and people will be fed.
• That G is as frustrated at Snowball’s bad behavior as I am. And that when he is home, he doesn’t hesitate to get up and clean up after his dog
• G understands how important it is to me to get a good night’s sleep and the barriers his dog is putting in the way of that. And is willing to sleep on the couch or take the dog downstairs and keep looking for solutions to this problem.
• That my colleagues from Evil Corporate work calling to ask if I could help with some short-term contract projects. Not that I want to go back into corporate work… but it’s nice to know that a little grocery money is coming in. It will probably mess with my unemployment payments that could start next month (last severance payment is 7/2) but I guess that’s OK.
• Starting to read again. Everything from light fiction to getting back into some theological reading.
• Finding a posting for a job I’d really like to get… I think. Which I’m taking to mean my exhaustion is lifting.
• SB proposing a way I could go back on staff at SAP and being willing to figure out a way to make it a 10 hour call. That makes me happy in several ways… I’m not ready to leave this congregation yet, I’d like to get through the call “hoop” in the process and be done with that and i think it could really work together well with the job I just mentioned.
• Not being broken by “running” that half marathon last week. Sure I was stiff and sore but nothing really serious. I will have to be careful about how I re-start my running to take special care of my shins as I think I could develop bad shin splints quickly if I’m not careful.
• Did you hear that big one up there? “how I re-start my running” That, right there is a BIG thing to be grateful for! I don’t hate the running and I’m actually kind of anxious to get back to some physical activity. I’ve given myself the entire week to relax and heal but now I want to get moving again.
• A lovely massage on Monday evening focusing on my lower half… legs, hips and feet. What a delightful post-race therapy!
• Lovely, important, deep conversations with friends and members of my religious community facilitated by SKYPE
• Getting emails from DS1 and seeing pictures on FB of him working out at Holden

I like that once I start thinking of things to be grateful for the list just keeps growing. There’s more, but that’s enough for now.