Here’s the thing

Specifically, today, I am grateful for the following five things:

• The days are getting noticeably longer and it’s still light at 5:00 p.m.
• The sidewalks are mostly clear of ice, salt and snow.
• I have a new houseplant and when I spray it with water, its leaves glisten in the sun.
• We recently purchased a Zerowater pitcher and we’ve been hydrating more because of it.
• My oldest and youngest kids put a little color in their hair and it’s fun to look at them.

I do appreciate those “things” but I don’t want you to think I walk around Rockford in a state of idiotic bliss. I’m…how do I put this…I’m a cheerful pessimist. I wait for the other shoe to drop. I am quick to laugh, but rarely smile.

So…

If you check back in a week, the plant will be dead, the hair colors faded, I’ll have wiped out on a new patch of ice and my Zerowater pitcher will have cracked from the pressure of quenching our family’s thirst. I don’t have an attitude of gratitude so much as just an attitude.

But there are “things” for which I am perpetually grateful: my husband and children; our purple house and the pets within; our backyard and the wildlife it attracts. The family from whence I come. My friends. Time to write. Sacred, sacred, sacred.

There’s professional gratitude too. I am grateful for Naked Angels Tuesdays@9 Chicago and the weeks I get to teach at Chicago Dramatists.

And I am grateful for this blog challenge. It’s a new way of writing for me and has opened my eyes to a totally unique literary community. I like it.

Are you still there? Or did I lose you somewhere in the sap? I can’t say I blame you but if you made it this far, thank you for reading my blog. Means a lot. -Connie