7 Days of Gratitude

Last week my aunt invited me to participate in the 7 Days of Gratitude Challenge. It’s actually something I’ve personally been focusing on lately, so I’m happy to share what I’m most grateful for. I do want to present it in a slightly different light though, and dig deep. Hopefully I can share with you why I’m grateful for the things that have made me, me!

Day 1: Friends and Family, of Course!

Unsurprisingly, I’m grateful for my amazing friends and family, without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today. Even though I live worlds away, I am ever so lucky to be able to maintain relationships with all the people I love; my parents, brother, extended family, and closest friends never feel all that far away. You have always been supportive of my crazy decisions and just as excited (sometimes more!) by my opportunities. I will always be grateful for the guidance and support you have given me. I am also grateful that I somehow manage to keep forming lifelong friendships, you are an awesome bunch of people!

Day 2: An Adventurous Spirit

I am constantly on the go. Sometimes that is quite literal as I jet around the world or explore new places, and sometimes it’s all in my head. From a young age my parents instilled in me a love of learning and insatiable curiosity. I love meeting new people, seeing new places, trying new things, and collecting memories. I think a lot of people “suffer” from wanderlust, but I thrive on it and am grateful every day for my adventurous spirit. It’s absolutely thrilling to impress yourself by constantly experiencing new things!

Day 3: Ability to Travel

Obviously, that spills over into my love of travel. I am grateful for every moment I get to explore. Traveling is one of my greatest passions. It is fun, exciting, tiring, strange, delicious, and often humbling. I am grateful for all the opportunities I have to travel. I am grateful for a job overseas that allows me to take time off, and save money, so that I can continue traveling. Thanks to amazing travel companions, time off work, and supportive friends, my travel bucket list is both shrinking and growing!

Day 4: Food

I hope you’re not laughing! I love food. I love baking, cooking, preparing food, and of course, eating. I love learning new recipes, arranging food on plates, and sometimes taking pictures of lovely presentation. I love that food can fuel my body for any activity, and bring people together. I am grateful that I have always had food. I haven’t always had the best relationship with it, but I have always had access to it. Knowing how many people don’t get enough to eat each day, I am incredibly thankful for never having to worry when my next meal will come.

Day 5: Nature

This is something I often overlook and forget how much I need it. When life gets crazy busy I am always so much happier when I take a few minutes to spend time outside. I feel so grounded by beaches, mountains, grassy fields, taking walks, watching stars, swimming, occasionally stomping in puddles, etc. I’m grateful that I live in a place where I can visit a variety of landscapes anytime I like. The world is an amazing place, and I’m very grateful I have chances to enjoy its wildness.

Day 6: Music and Art

I sing all the time. When I’m bored, when I’m sleepy, when I’m happy or upset. In the shower or not. I have lost my voice a few times due to illness or overuse and those were difficult, difficult days, my friend. In my down time I craft, draw, paint, look up knitting patterns, etc. My memories and dreams are based in colors and sounds. Without music and art I don’t think I would have learned to express myself in any capacity, and I wouldn’t be me. It seems almost silly to say I’m grateful for all the music and art in my life, but I really truly am. I am grateful that through them I can express emotions when no words are available, and for the constant entertainment they both provide.

Day 7: My Body

This is pretty revolutionary for me to say, but here it goes: I am grateful for my body. I don’t have the fittest, or the fastest, or the most beautiful, or a particularly enviable body. But it is my body. I am grateful that my body can walk, dance, swim, talk, be silly, make art, and play instruments. I am grateful that it is healthy and adaptable. I am grateful that it accomplished climbing Mt. Fuji (more on this later!), and amazed that it swam with whale sharks. I’m grateful that I am able to view my body in terms of what it can do, versus what it looks like as compared to unrealistic media standards. It’s a pretty recent phenomenon for me to have shifted my thinking, and even though I am not always happy with it, I am grateful that it is mine. And it works.

I tried my hardest to make this as honest a list as possible. This is by no means exhaustive. A few only just slipped by into honorable mention (education; laughter; increasingly global society;and fast, easy, communication). A month or so ago I began reflecting, almost daily, on these things and how thankful I am for so much in my life. Since starting that, I feel more present, empowered, proud, and aware of myself. Thanks to my wonderful Auntie Anne for asking me to share!

27 Aug This entry was published on August 27, 2014 at 17:03. It’s filed under Amigurumi, Uncategorized and tagged art, family, food, friends, fuwafuwastudio, gratitude, health, music, nature, travel. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.