Gratitude List (202 things I am grateful for)

What if, when you woke up tomorrow, you had only those things you had remembered to be grateful for today?

1. AA
2. AA meetings that are plentiful and diverse
3. Airplanes that are safe, accessible and affordable
4. Anesthesia
5. Animal shelters and the people who support them
6. Antibiotics
7. Antihistamines
8. Antiques and heirlooms
9. Art
10. Artists
11. Artificial body parts (my tooth, her knee)
12. Artificial Sweeteners
13. Authors who take the time to do the writing I can read
14. Auto mechanics who are honest
15. Babies
16. Bandaids
17. Beaches to visit, and as part of my landscape growing up
18. Bed
19. Bible
20. Big dogs I am brave enough to walk.
21. Blogs to read from the comfort of my home
22. Boats
23. Bones for the dog
24. Books on CD for the car ride
25. Books to own and borrow without censorship
26. Calculators
27. Candles
28. Candy
29. Car
30. Car insurance
31. Caregivers
32. Cat food
33. Cat litter (was there life before cat litter?)
34. Cell phones that help me contact people who are not in one place
35. Change
36. Charities that enable me to help people from right here at home
37. Cheese
38. Chemotherapy
39. Children (adult children)
40. (That my) Children have not been endangered by my alcoholism, that they only know me sober.
41. Chocolate
42. Christmas – although I have huge difficulties with Christianity, it is nice to contemplate this person that was Jesus and the ways in which he changed the world for good.
43. Church bells I can hear from my house twice a day when I’m home.
44. Church that is diverse, accepting and traditional
45. Cities that are safe and interesting
46. Clergy
47. Clouds
48. Coffee
49. Computers at home and work and many other places
50. Cook books
51. Cousins (as an only child, they’ve meant a lot to me)
52. Crocheting and a crochet teacher
53. Democracy and elections
54. Dental hygienists (I don’t know what they make, but it can’t be enough)
55. Dental implants
56. Dentists
57. Dialysis
58. Digital cameras
59. Doctors who care about what they are doing, and who think about what they are doing.
60. Dog parks
61. Dog sighs
62. Dogs
63. Donations of time, money and material things people give to others who need them, to the world and environment.
64. Drivers who drive people who are unable to drive
65. Drivers who take others to AA meetings
66. Ebay
67. Electricity
68. Electronic books (so handy!)
69. Employment in a safe, comfortable place – in a job that lets me serve others
70. Employment of my wife, son and daughter – in safe, comfortable places in work they enjoy doing
71. Eye doctors
72. Eye glass designers, and technicians who help me find some
73. Eyeglasses
74. Eyesight that is good and easily corrected to perfect
75. Faith
76. Family
77. Fire
78. Fire fighters
79. Five senses – touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing
80. (anti) Flea treatments – my life before them was often infested
81. Food that is affordable, plentiful, safe and interesting
82. Foster critters and the people who foster them
83. Freedom of the press
84. Friends
85. Funerals, a chance to say goodbye and be present and possibly supportive of other survivors
86. Gay – being openly, safely gay
87. Glasses that correct eyesight
88. God’s Grace that gives me good things I don’t deserve
89. Graduations – the ones I’ve achieved, and the ones my loved ones have achieved
90. Grandparents, especially my mother’s parents, who helped raise me
91. Gratitude and the ability to appreciate things
92. Hair straighteners – I wish they had had these when I was young, although maybe a lack of straight hair taught me acceptance.  But I love it now!
93. Hawaii
94. Health insurance
95. Heating pads
96. Hillary Clinton and the historic campaign
97. History and the people who recorded and preserved it
98. Holidays
99. Home remedies and the wisdom of the ages
100. House that I love
101. Imagination
102. Intelligence
103. Kittens
104. Libraries
105. Love
106. Mammography
107. Medical attention that is some of the best in the world
108. Medical insurance that is excellent
109. Medications that are plentiful and affordable
110. Menopause (especially that I’ve lived this long)
111. Message boards (internet message boards)
112. Mobility and the ability to get from place to place
113. Mouse traps
114. Movies
115. Music
116. My mother
117. Nail polish
118. National parks (protected wild spaces)
119. Nature
120. Neighbors
121. Netflix – so much info, so close at hand
122. Neti pot
123. Newcomers who make us remember what we’re here for, what is was like, and what we don’t want to return to
124. Non-violence, the attitude my parents raised me with
125. Novocaine
126. Obama – love him, and that I got to see this and participate
127. Ocean – seen from Hawaii, so beautiful, clean (looking) and warm, and fierce
128. Oldtimers who don’t drink but keep coming to meetings
129. Online communities
130. Paid holidays, vacations and sick leave
131. Pain killers, and a healthy fear of them
132. Pain relievers – Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen and aspirin
133. Pajamas
134. Parents of people with disabilities, who show me by their example
135. Parks
136. Partners (in life, in work)
137. Patience (my own, and that which is shown to me)
138. Peace
139. People of my prayer list
140. People who back me up
141. Pepsi
142. Pets – current, past and future
143. Pet food
144. Pet sitters
145. Photographs, especially those I’ve scanned and “backed up”
146. Plants – to eat and grow for the yard, for the dog
147. Poetry and poets
148. Police
149. Puppies
150. Rain (every living thing needs water)
151. Rainbows (are cheerful, no matter what)
152. Reading – the physical and mental ability, and the desire and love
153. Recycling, often made easy (curbside pick up)
154. Relapsers who make it back
155. Religion – freedom of and from
156. Reporters, journalists and writers who go where I can’t or don’t want to
157. Restaurants, the people who work them, the money to pay for them, and people to go with
158. Road crews taking risks in the snow and ice
159. Roads that are paved, plowed, salted and somewhat safe
160. Safety – the relative safety of my environment, always
161. Salt to melt the ice (I try to use it very sparingly, but sometimes it saves my neck)
162. Scanner to digitize my old pictures
163. School – good schools, for me and for my kids
164. Seasons
165. Second (third, fourth, fifth) chances
166. Serenity
167. Siblings – that my daughter has a brother and my son has a sister – that they enjoy each other and spend time together willingly
168. Smoking – the ability to quit
169. Snow – beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
170. Snow tires
171. Soap
172. Sobriety
173. Sonograms and sonogram technicians
174. Spell check
175. Spring
176. Steroids for the itchy dog
177. Stores – nearby, and well stocked with everything I need or want
178. Sun and sunlight
179. Taxes that pay for things we need
180. Teachers
181. Television
182. Thanksgiving (a day for gratitude)
183. Therapy and therapists
184. Time
185. Toothbrushes and toothpaste
186. Town
187. Transportation that is safe and available for going places near and far
188. Tweezers
189. Two pregnancies, two children
190. Vaccines
191. Ventilators (respiratory)
192. Veterinarians
193. Video, digital, and film recordings of so many things from the past.
194. Water that is clean, safe and plentiful, and hot!
195. Weather forecasts.  Although they can be wrong and wacky, I imagine a time when people had no idea what was coming, or when it would end.
196. Weather that is safe and varied and not too extreme
197. Wifey
198. Wireless internet
199. Work partner Irene who covers for me when I need her to
200. Workers – people who I work with who try hard and mean it
201. Writers who write things for me to read
202. Yarn that is affordable, plentiful and interesting