Prescious moments

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

French Proverb

I was thinking about my blog this morning as well as the myriad of websites in this world that really have no purpose except as an outlet for people to express a random thought (i.e. Twitter, Facebook). So I thought, what if I could transform my blog into a Twitter-esque site with a purpose? Instead of random posts and musings, the site would have a direction--posts would have to be about gratitude.

And then today as I was reading my Happiness Project newsletter, the author (Gretchin Rubin), noted a site just as I had described! It's call ThankfulFor and you can find some public gratitude expressions here: http://thankfulfor.com/musings. My one qualm with this is that people will update with vague and generic expressions. Yes, everyone is thankful for your husband or wife or sunny day. But the musings I am most interested in are the ones people would never think of because they're unique to that person so they don't even think about them as things to be thankful for because they're not universal, profound thoughts. For example, I just hopped on the site and my favorite one is: My cats who sleep on my desk and calm me down just by looking at them. I love this quote because it is so simple and for anyone who is a cat lover, they will understand completely what she means by this. It's a unique feeling only to Ingrid or to cat lovers' but it can be so overlooked sometimes because it's not an overarching umbrella expression. And yet it is so quietly profound... Also, it's easy to remember that you are grateful for life, or your spouse, or family, or house...but oftentimes, we forget what that really means because it is so cliche. We forget what that gratitude feels like because it's so often talked about. However, the small reminders of our easy/beautiful/comfortable lives are what we take for granted the most.

A while ago I wrote about my commute home and how during my walk from the train to my house, I would always see a family of ducks crossing Back Hill Lane. It's a fairly busy lane but all the cars would stop and let them pass and pedestrians stop and watch. I love this moment--it is a prescious moment and a graceful way for mother nature to remind us we should slow down in life and enjoy the little things in the midst of what could really be a mundane task.

More prescious moments I love:
-Walking into the Houston's house and hearing little Kyle scream when he sees me, like a prepubescent girl at an 'N SYNC concert
-Watching really fat pigeons trying to land on really skinny tree limbs--a thankful reminder that life is funny; don't take it too seriously.
-Reminiscing via pictures--not the pretty posed ones but the candid shots that remind me of moments and feelings that can't be contained in 4x6 glossy. (Examples-picture of the first time Clint came and sat down to chat with us girls at Manda's rehearsal dinner; picture of Sunny and me making pig faces at the A's game; picture of Alex, my costa Rican bus driver who called me China (spanish accent), picture of Matt and his beer-bottle-love in Bodega...)
-Doing dishes with Clint, or making him some tea, or listening to him fill the bath for me... cause maybe real love is in knowing and considering a person in little loving ways.