The Grateful Thread

I am thankful for emotional training.

i am grateful for those who are here at the temple. you are all awesome

I'm grateful for mild nights after the rain where the air feels like silk on my skin and smells like damp earth. The kind of night that calls me out to reconnect with nature in the stillness of the dark.

I am grateful for regular work.

Avalonslight wrote: For other people's patience... especially when they're being patient with me.

Dis

Just realized there are 6 days until I have been on TotJO for 6 months.

I have changed so much since January. Almost all of the reactive anger I had when I showed up here is gone. I am no longer self-destructing with no hope for the future. In fact, I made plans for 10-15 years from now just yesterday without even thinking about it... before this, I wasn't going to live past my daughter turning 18. I haven't thought about that in months.

I don't know who or what I would be without this place... almost certainly stuck in the same pain I had been in for another year until time ran out. I know we aren't to my 6 month anniversary yet, but thank you (all) in advance.

Wade (at work) was running down a coworker of mine that he dislikes (for good reason, the person is lazy and cheats the clock on their breaks, making all of us pick up their slack) and then said "and they're an ATHEIST, I hate those motherf*ckers!"

I said, "well actually, Wade, I'm one too." He said, "you are not!" incredulously, and when he realized I wasn't joking, his face went white. Then he practically shouted, "well you'll think differently about being an atheist when you have flames shooting out of your ass in hell".

I kept working, politely mentioned that he'd been working alongside me for months and hadn't been able to tell, that I worked every bit as hard as he did, was every bit as honest as he was, we just had different ways of seeing things. Then I let him refuse to talk to me until it was time to go home for the day. His loud conversation with another coworker (we were all working in the same area) turned to all of the reasons he was "a bad christian but still a christian" and how atheists were what was wrong with this country.

I am grateful for a chance to practice patience and compassion. I don't expect to change him, that's not my job. I'm just going to keep being the best version of me that I can be.

Halfway through a full SW marathon, something is different.

(I can't believe I'm saying this) I am thankful for Jar Jar Binks. It's been a while since I watched the prequels because of my disdain for Jar Jar. Whenever I think I want to have a marathon, I usually just watch the OT because I don't want to have to sit through Jar Jar's antics. If I do start at Episode I, I usually skip through the scenes that are just Jar Jar.

I think I have really changed, spiritually, since I last watched some of Jar Jar's scenes. I no longer see him as simply a bumbling oaf with an annoying voice. It hit me that Queen Amidala must have had a good reason for leaving him as her representative in the senate. What did she see in him that I was missing by holding this judgement about him? With this question in mind, I watch him interact with the other players. He uses funny words and uses the words I recognize in hilarious ways, but looking past that, I see a dignified nobleman with nothing but goodwill in his heart. He definitely has too much fear which is not an asset, but his willingness to "hang in there" makes him a valuable member of the team.

Thank you, George Lucas, for introducing me to the character that brings us up to the next level in our tolerance of others. I mean, if I can learn to love Jar Jar Binks, I can learn to love anyone.

I am thankful to be able to close my window when it starts to rain. :blush:

Today I'm grateful for math.

I've been here for 5 months, not 6. Derp xD