Things I'm Thankful For

I'm so behind on my blogging! I have so many things to write! Here's a quick list of topics:

• Camping at Lake Tahoe
• Newport Beach vs. Venice Beach
• Biking along the Wetlands of San Francisco Bay
• Nature and Rock 'n' Roll
• California lingo
• Tim Minchin's UWA Address
• The Pain of Progress, or Finding Balance, or Am I Doing It Right?
• Matt Walsh's blog post on Microaggression

It's been a busy, busy couple of weeks -- in the physical world and in my head!

It's also been hard. Moving is difficult. Moving to a place alone is difficult. Finding a place to live and then realizing the oven is a cheap son of a gun is difficult.

My sister-in-law Jacki reminded me of something yesterday, though, when she wrote this comment on my blog: "What are you thankful for, Sara?"

Now, I didn't forget about my thing-I'm-thankful-for deal in my last blog post; I intentionally left it off because I didn't think it looked good at the end of an open letter. However, Jacki's words cut me real deep. Rill deep. You see, I've been struggling with coming up with things I'm thankful for on my blog posts lately. Sure, I'm thankful for a job. And sure, I'm thankful for my family. Lately, though, my gratitude lacks a . . . specificity that I think indicates sincerity. So I'm gonna try to be specific here, and I'm gonna try to make myself more grateful by being grateful.

Things I'm thankful for:

• Meeting Laura tonight at a women-in-business event
• Talking to Brooke on the phone
• The five minutes of rain this morning
• The chill in the air that I hope heralds Fall
• Palm trees and Aspens and Redwoods and Pines
• Bike rides, even when all I can afford are short ones
• Plain yogurt with a tablespoon of honey and a cup of granola
• Almonds! Soft and wonderful California almonds
• And episode of "Seinfeld" I caught the other night -- The Pick (It gets really good at 2:40!)
• Schoolhouse cookies from Trader Joe's
• Snail mail from my sisters
• Family chats on Google Hangout