My Gratitude Journal: “I'm grateful for my cat, green olives, baking soda, photographs”

More entries from the Gratitude Journal I started keeping after my college graduation:

January 24, 2997

I forgot yesterday, and even though I just cried my eyes out and soaked my pillow, here it is:

1.  I’m grateful S didn’t yell at me, not really.

 

2. I’m grateful N and her boyfriend didn’t come back.

 

3. I’m grateful it’s artichoke season, and I got some damn good ones.

 

4. I’m grateful that I have the house to myself, so I can sob as loudly as I want.

 

5. Again, I’m grateful for music, for a good song and dancing can usually make me forget about anything.

 

6. I’m grateful that I don’t have to work with him anymore, because I just can’t help myself.

 

February 18, 1997

1. I’m grateful for books like “The Bean Trees” that I can escape into time and again.

 

2. I’m grateful for all the Texas sheet cake that Karen’s mom sends her home with.

 

3. I’m grateful that I had the balls to call Vallejo.

 

4. I’m grateful that J convinced me to call.

 

5. I’m grateful that I actually have a place like M & M’s to go to, even if it is reluctantly.

 

6. I’m grateful for purple, flowery skirts and that I have nice legs. Thanks, mom.

 

February 23, 1997

1. Once again, I’m grateful for music, and songs like “Crash” by The Dave Matthews Band, that can articulate and begin feelings inexpressible.

 

2. I’m grateful I still live near the ocean so I can watch the waves and be calmed, cleaned.

 

3. I’m grateful for my cat, someone warm to love and cuddle up with every night.

 

4. I’m grateful for green olives, so good and salty and spicy.

 

5. I’m grateful for baking soda, it’s cheap and good for so many things, like easing heartburn from drinking spicy Bloody Mary mix late at night.

 

6. I’m grateful for pictures. What would our world be without them? What is our world like because of them? What if we couldn’t look at the faces of loved ones gone again?

Would we forget our lives? How would we show each other our past? That’s who they’re for — to communicate to others who weren’t there. It is an invaluable form of communication, showing images that would otherwise only exist in the minds of those who saw it, and how do you impart that information?

 

Some of my favorite photographs were taken by my friend Nathan, who discovered his love of traveling and taking pictures after meeting his father and taking road trips together.