Gratitude

In my journal I’ve gotten into the habit of including highlights and lowlights every few weeks. It’s a record of life in list-form, I guess. But I like to think of it as things for which I am grateful. Trying to develop a keener sense of gratitude in recent years, I now realize that whether an event is “good” or “bad,” I can learn and grow from it. Here, then, are a few things for which I am grateful from the month of April.

--Spending time with my niece Natalie
--Time for games—Scrabble, Cribbage, and Mexican Train Dominoes
--Serving old folks a home-cooked meal at the weekly soup kitchen
--Holy Week festivities, Latin-American style
--The friendliness of the people around me
--My cooking class with Tonya
--Street food, especially enchiladas, tamales, tacos, and gorditas
--Fresh strawberries and fresh blackberry yoghurt
--Our friend Linda’s sweet tooth, which means great desserts for us
--Meeting Luisa, another list-keeper like myself
--Listening to the thunder and watching the lightning from our glass-paned bedroom
--The public library, with books galore and a language exchange twice a week
--Time to read
--Bob’s banjo, guitar, and ukulele tunes
--Great buys: a $2.00 antique tray and a $2.00 leather backpack
--Climbing the pyramids at Teotihuacan and sitting at the top
--Breakfasts with rooftop views in Patzcuaro and Mexico City
--Lavendar cotton candy and lavendar jacaranda trees
--Murals by Diego Rivera and paintings by Frida Kahlo
--Puking in public on my birthday, something I haven’t done since 7th grade (Okay, I’m not yet grateful for that experience nor did I learn anything from it except to stay home when feeling sick)
--Hot flashes (Is this the beginning of The Change? I hope so!)
--Discovering painter Octavio Ocampo’s paintings on Janitzio Island

“Forever Always,” by Mexican-born Octavio Ocampo, 1989 (Look closely—there’s more than meets the eye in Ocampo’s magical style of superimposed details within the images)