Our atmosphere

Day 1 of Celestine Chua’s Gratitude Challenge. Already the heat is building, the assignments quickly escalating. What must I do today?

#Gratitude Challenge Day 1: Write 10 Things You are Grateful For in Your Life

That should be easy! The objects of my gratitude are legion.

1. The wonderful people in my life: Shannon, my partner, who puts up with my crazy wild schemes and outlandish costumes, not to mention certain … ahem … attitude anomalies; Jason and Zachary, our sons, who each deserve their own bullet points; and my dear friends and family who still remember me, even when I forget to remember them.
2. The physical things of the world, like sunshine, red rocks, and beautiful clouds.
3. All the biological, genetic, and physiological processes that have resulted in flowers and the multitude of plants and animals and the crazy mechanisms that make them all work
4. My senses, when they work, that allow me to see color and hear orchestras and bird song and wind in the trees and taste delicious foods and feel warm breezes on my naked skin, the soft fur of my kitties and the petal on a flower; and even once in a while a tantalizing smell
5. The creativity of my fellow humans who design beautiful architecture and music and paintings and sculpture and stories that open up the many universes
6. Random acts of kindness amidst the coldness of an uncaring universe
7. Ice cream and chocolate, without which the world would be a less fun place
8. Laughter
9. Mathematics, the language of existence; e=mc ^2
10. Having a mind that can appreciate and wonder at it all and evaluate and compare and delve my way to truth
11. Living in a time and place when women, gays, people of all races, and animals at least have a start at respect and consideration and value

Whoops, that’s 11. But I could go on. Already, the ones I list are compound and don’t do justice. We must see what happens in the next assignment.

Mathematics!

Music!