Thanksgiving Post

I think one of the fundamental things that has changed about my life as I have gotten older is that I basically function in a state of gratitude. This isn't to say I don't have my moments of anger, selfishness, and some horrid pity parties, because I totally do. However, on my good days, in my thoughts, and in my outlook, I am thankful for what I have.

Being thankful has changed a lot about my level of happiness. When I was younger and functioned in a state of "me me me want want want," I was rarely happy. I rarely savored the moments. I just obsessed about the past and fretted about the future. In other words, I concentrated on shit I couldn't do a damned thing about.

These days, I have a lot to be thankful for. Actually, I find I have more to be thankfulness every day. I've done posts like this before, so I thought I'd focus on the things that have changed this year that I am grateful for.

• I am very thankful that I know what I want out of life. I understand that, above all things, I want to be stable and strong in all aspects of my life. I want to be secure in my ability to handle the challenges that rear their ugly little heads. I want to be able to walk as far as I need to and learn what I have to in order to make my life calm, peaceful, and good.
• I am thankful that I am learning to forgive.  There are a lot of hurts and slights that have happened to me. I'm getting to the point where I know that carrying them around with me is just useless. I'm letting them go and moving forward. The debts are erased and my life is mine now, unchained by the past.
• I am thankful that I'm taking the state of my health into my own hands. Every day, I do something to get closer to my weight goal. And yes, that goal is so far off it's basically in another state, but that's okay. Every step I take towards the goal is significant. 
• I am thankful that my roommate and I have began to view problems in a different way.  The new motto is, "If Plan A isn't working, we move to Plan B. If Plan B doesn't work, we move to Plan C." There have been a lot of things in our lives that have been difficult in the way we were trying to handle them. Instead of just growing more and more frustrated about the fact that the plan wasn't working, we now opt to abandon the plan and try a new one. So far, this is making a lot more sense and saving us quite a bit of stress.

Lastly, and this isn't a new thing for this year, but it does need to be mentioned, I am so deeply grateful for all the love I'm given. I am thankful for my friends, for the family members who love me, for the animals who love me, and for my small following of blog readers. I feel very loved every day by all of you. There is nothing better in the world than that.