Grateful Challenge 2018

It’s year five of my taking the Grateful Challenge! Inspired by Spin Sucks, the goal is to set a timer for 10 minutes and try to list 99 things you’re grateful for. (Here are the previous installments: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.)

This year’s installment:

1. My mom’s life
2. Everything my mom taught me, especially about integrity
3. My mom’s admonition to “be pretty” (which wasn’t about outer beauty)
4. My husband
5. My dad
6. My daughter
7. My son
8. My new job
9. All the time I spent as a freelancer at my new job, before becoming a full-time employee
10. Everyone at my job who has taken the time to explain things to me, support me, help me figure out the ropes
11. All the freelancers who I now work with
12. Backing up to the “mom” section — all the time we had with her between her initial hospitalization in early December 2017 and her death in February — just sitting in a hospital room, time that obviously was a gift (in retrospect)
13. My house — the memories we have here as we prepare to move out
14. My friends
15. All the lessons I learned from three years of caregiving
16. All the lessons I learned between leaving Healthy Kids in May 2014 and starting my full-time job in September 2018 — freelancing for different places
17. Returning (somewhat) to an exercise habit
18. Returning to Weight Watchers, losing 30 pounds
19. My trip to Chicago, speaking at Type A along with Laura Petrolino
20. Wayne Kevin’s graduation in May
21. Tenley’s upcoming graduation in December
22. Wayne Kevin’s and Tenley’s significant others
23. Being involved with Charity Miles
24. The opportunity to review plays for Broadway World and the Tallahassee Democrat
25. Meeting Chloe Bressack at the Pulse Vigil
26. Snail Mail
27. Yoga, the Tallahassee community, the support given to Hot Yoga Tallahassee
28. The one time in the four years of freelancing I really got sabotaged, because karma worked that one out pretty beautifully
29. Blogging
30. Reading
31. Being together with the whole family in April when we buried Dad’s and Barb’s ashes
32. Learning to (having to?) say no to a few things
33. The Five Minute Friday community
34. Toastmasters — even though I’m not active now, using the lessons from it every day
35. People who take the time to give me specific feedback about how to improve (at work and in the broader world)
36. A great therapist, the opportunity to have help working through things
37. Coffee dates with friends
38. Not that it’s a “good” thing, but the fact that working through a less-than-optimal credit rating has made me hustle harder (and hopefully will lead to my kids being freakishly careful about money)

In closing

If “success” is reaching 99 items, then this year is a bust! Maybe it’s a function of being in survival mode for much of the year. Maybe I’m writing this while tired. I tend to think it’s more a function of this year falling into a few huge chunks of “life” instead of many small fragments.

What I know, but didn’t necessarily convey in the 38 items listed, is that I am so fortunate … to be doing work I love and to have the opportunity to work from home. To have celebrated a 26th wedding anniversary and to have spent this evening with my two grown children, reassured by them to an extent that they feel pretty good about their childhoods.

I know I have probably left people out, but I guess the beautiful thing is that I can make it a point to express my gratitude in person, in writing, or with a phone call any time I choose.

Want to Join?

It’s never too late to spend ten minutes focusing on gratitude! Let me know if you do the challenge!

Photo Credit: Gratisography

Paula Kiger

Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.