I am grateful:
1. A great day yesterday at the Ivy League University.
2. I learned a lot. (That’s not always the case).
3. I was unable to type much (hand) but can borrow notes from a colleague and type them when I can
4. L drove me down and back
5. And I paid for parking to do my part
6. D and I had a nice lunch together.
7. And I got a soup for my mom.
8. I was very lonely last night : ( but I got through it
9. And am working toward more energy so I can do things in the early evenings and not just sit here lonely
10. Had nice chat with my mother
11. Stopped at a major healthy supermarket because L needed to.
12. I’m glad I got there
13. And I noticed what she bought for dinner (she is not a vegetarian or vegan)
14. She bought one fresh flounder fillet each, and a large bunch of fresh organic Swiss Chard. That’s a lot less, fresher, and healthier than the way I usually eat. A good lesson for me (not the fish but the idea).
15. Seeing those fish, including the whole ones, and knowing what they go through suffocating to death, made me glad for my vegan decision.
16. I am grateful for oxygen.
17. And for people who care about the planet and do our best. Because otherwise, people will be suffocating one day too. But many many “regular” people are working to turn it around.
18. And many scientists too.
19. And every vegan is helping in another way too
20. They took all my paper recycling yesterday.
21. M called last night
22. Hand hurts – and wrist – but – will keep doing exercises and hope for and expect the best
23. I’ll have time to read this weekend
24. Remembering the beautiful antique tea set (teapot and saucer and creamer) I have. Although I don’t use now because one piece is broken. But so many times using it. And thinking, “How many women? How many dreams, hopes, feelings, have poured from this? How much love? How much relaxation…” So interesting!
25. My three tiered dish that my mother paid for week by week for a year BEFORE she could take it home from the antique store. In 1948.
26. And my antique jewelry box, same story. Wow.
27. My old, old books
28. And my new books too
29. Bad dreams – very very bad, night before last and last night even worse – BUT – getting up and walking through the *clean * house, and thanking God for the day helped turn it around.
30. Healthy food for today. Really healthy. Like homemade lentil soup with nothing from a can. Fresh orange. Fresh apple…
31. My habit of having brewed coffee every morning. What a luxury!
32. The very happy day I have planned for the kids today.
33. The favorite fairy tale of my life that I’m going to share with my class
34. And with M’s
35. And they can write music or rap (or skits) to go with it!
36. The deep breath I just took looking at the clean desk with the chair in front of it with no clutter or recycling garbage around it for the first time ever.
37. And I think *I * even like using that desk! Never thought I would but did the other day…
38. Hearing from EJ today! I love her message. As always.
39. Maybe reading date with MA this weekend?
40. All the jumping rope I did as a kid, with friends.
41. Seeing my students doing it now.
42. How easy it was to move. To jump, to run, to sit or lie on the rug for tv or chess in any weird position…never a thought.
43. I want to get as close back to that as I can
44. All the times J and I watched “The Office” and laughed
45. Me going to bed so early last night. Not as early as I should have, because I felt like going at 5 pm – was SO tired! But at least early: )
46. A weekend soon. To rest up and to exercise. And to cook more *fresh * stuff.
47. Still so grateful for some people. Like EJ
48. And JJ
49. And Birdie
50. And R (at work)
51. And M!
52. And O
53. And MA!
54. And ML
55. And S
56. And St
57. And Ma
58. And K
59. And JA
60. And Jo
61. And my principal
62. And L. These people are very important to me.
63. And so many people who have inspired me in some ways. Like Helen Keller
64. And Ben Franklin (the vegetarian: “Animals are my friends and I don’t eat my friends.”)
65. And Eleanor Roosevelt
66. And Margaret Mead. And many others.
67. And great poets. Like Emily Dickenson
68. And Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And so many others.
69. And great composers. Like Mozart.
70. And Beethoven
71. And Bach
72. And Chopin
73. And Scarlatti
74. And Rachmaninoff
75. And Phillippa Gregory’s books set in the time of Henry VIII
76. And when I was young and loved reading Victoria Holt books
77. And how I loved reading Jane Eyre
78. And how I loved reading Rebecca.
79. And the first line of Rebecca: my favorite first line.
80. And how I loved reading Anna Karenina
81. And Molokai.
82. So I’ve been looking for a French tutor, cheap but good. Found the perfect one. But she wrote and said she does not have time in her schedule after all: ( But – I wrote to the head of the Language Department at the Middle School and she wrote back.
83. And she said she can usually not help at all with a request like this (for a student who can teach or something like that). But that at this time she does know someone.
84. And she gave me her e-mail.
85. And guess what? It is a former student of mine! I taught her in third grade. I loved her very much. She loved me very much. I have never forgotten her. And – I am sitting, right now, about two feet from a painting of tulips she made for me, which still hangs in my den. That was 25 years ago!
86. She might become my French teacher!
87. And – by taking French, I’ll be fulfilling a dream I’ve had since I was 12 years old!
88. And I took it for 4 years in high school and one in college, and do remember some stuff.
89. I am so tremendously grateful that I am breathing so well.
90. When J and I were watching House together from the library. We really enjoyed that.
91. When he picked me up after that dreadful year of teaching – the worst – “colleagues…” on the last day, and took me to the beach, and we sat on the sand in our clothes, and I strung beads. That was one of my favorite afternoons ever.
92. That I will be able to have many more great times. (Right?) And I can have them without J. (Right?) Well yes. I have to.
93. That now that the house is clean, and if I’m not binging, I don’t have those huge clouds over me, which leaves me with – gulp – me. I’ll have to deal. And that’ll be good for me in the long (and maybe short too) run.
94. That while my weakness as a teacher used to be teaching writing, I have become a good writing teacher! It took a lot of hard work and time and even courage and great teachers, but I am now a great writing teacher.
95. In fact, last year when the teacher/staff developer from China spent a month in my classroom, she was enormously impressed with how I taught writing. She never stopped talking about it. Wow!
96. That my piano is in tune. I have such a “bad ear” that I kind of really can’t tell the difference, unless it’s extremely bad, which this one has never been yet, but knowing it is in tune gives me confidence.
97. That J said not only is how well it stayed in tune a tribute to the tuner’s touch (as this newer tuner said), but to how well *I’ve * cared for it – humidifier etc. That was nice.
98. I’m so grateful to have so much to be grateful for. Really.
99. That I can type today. It hurts, but not bad.
100. That I can read. I feel for people who can’t.
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