One of the many people I'm grateful for this morning is my brand new baby niece. Love you, little one!
This time last year I was Offering Gratitudes. The year before I was Giving Thanks for the Little Life. The year before that I was planning ways to Unstuff Your Holidays. (By the way, I’m teaching a Downsizing E-Course in January, so if you’re interested, you can join us!) The year before that I was thinking about how most of my stuff is Just Stuff. And the year before that, when I had first moved into a tiny house on wheels, it was just a simple Thanksgiving!
Gratitude is a habit of mine anyhow. I note my gratitudes in a journal and when we sit down to eat we all say something we're grateful for. Science shows that people who are grateful are more happy. I can attest that that's true for me. And I love this day that is dedicated to being appreciative of the people, experiences, and things that make our lives better.
Today is Isha's bday so we're going to spend the day however he pleases instead of doing the traditional Thankgiving thing. We'll feast on Saturday when we host a Friendsgiving Potluck and bday party for my sweetie.
Here's my short list of gratitudes for today:
- My fabulous fiance who is imaginative, clever, big-hearted, determined, goofy, responsible, witty, thoughtful, and generous. I'm so delighted to be able to celebrate him today!
- My five sisters who are all out there exploring, creating, playing, and giving their gifts to this big, crazy world. (And, I'll admit, after a recent visit, I'm particularly smitten with my three week old niece and my three-year-old nephew. Thanks for the snuggles, the storybooks, the smiles, and the accidental geocaching adventures!)
- My relatives (including my fairy godfamily, of course) who are creative, thoughtful, loving, brave, and fascinating. My cousins Irina and Michael are such good role models of gratitude. They are incredibly thankful for each other and their two adorable and clever kids and I love that about them!
- My friends and colleagues near and far who inspire me to be a better person. How I love cups of tea, deep conversations, exploring my own city and far away ones, hikes, walks, soaking pools, movie nights, cooking, dinner parties, and craft nights with good friends! (And these days I'm especially grateful for Lori who has been my right-hand-woman during much of our tiny house build!)
- My adorable kitty who is a splendid cuddler and charms the socks off even people who are supposedly "not cat people."
- My charming little house The Lucky Penny and our new house T42 which is coming along nicely (especially now that a newly-purchased canopy has helped me learn to play nice with sun and rain in the Portland autumn!)
- Our other new house, which gives us the possibility of Creating a New Tiny Cohousing Community. And my friends from Simply Home Community who are, fortunately, still neighbors.
- All the splendid people I've met over the past five years since My Tiny House Adventure Began. That means YOU! So thank you, too.
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday, surrounded by people you love. How are you celebrating the day and what are you grateful for today?