Todays little challenge was to take a picture of one thing, person, place or specific moment that makes you feel grateful.

So here they are – one was not really enough!

Grateful for my new shed

I have a new shed and a concrete floor!!!

The build for the new house has been a long haul… but we are close now and I am grateful that I am able to do this with my wonderful wife.

Grateful for rusty steel

Rusty Steel!

I am grateful that there is just heaps of rusty steel lying around up here.  I’m gunna build stuff!

Grateful at Loch Luna

Sugarloaf Hill at Loch Luna, Barmera.

I climbed up to the top of the hill and stood where my Dad’s quarry used to be… good memories.  For those memories, the break in the weather when I was there today (smoking like my Dad did!) – for these things I am grateful.

Grateful at Lake Bonney

The peace of the river (well in this shot lake Bonney)

Often we don’t see what is right in front of us – no matter how big it is.

I took a moment today and just sat there.  I am grateful for that moment and the place I was able to spend it.

Well, a picture is supposed to say a 1000 words….  I think, that thinking is more important than words – and thinking that you are grateful for things, feeling it, experiencing it, and most of all acknowledging it … there are not enough words.

Funny how in taking these pictures, I had to actually look around me to figure out what I was grateful for….  How ironic that most of the things were right in front of me all the time? The photograph is a nice reminder – the knowledge that each photograph was taken, not for the image, but for the feeling, was like having the best filter, ever.

Todays little challenge was to call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while and let them know how much you appreciate them.

So I made a few calls.  Actually I made a few calls yesterday and I will probably make a few calls tomorrow…..

I also popped a couple of little notes, and not so little letters in the post to people I know would appreciate receiving them.

One of the things I always think about when I am writing letters is a mental picture I have of when the people receive them – I suppose this is the main reason I write them.  And I always mention that it is okay that they don’t write back, because most don’t, and it really is okay by me.

I haven’t got much else to write today as I am a bit tired as I have found that one thing about this little ‘Gratitude Challenge’ is that it generally makes you feel a little more positive about most other stuff.  For me it has also made me not react to the shit that floats past me during the day.  So, I am a little tired because in being that little bit more positive you get more stuff done – and that makes you tired, but it is a good tired….

Todays little gratitude challenge is to spend 5 minutes writing about all the wonderful things you currently have in your life – not things you want, but things you already have…..

A buddy of mine who is also doing the challenge is writing ten things each day he grateful for, so I will follow his lead today and write 10 wonderful things in my life.

I’m going to not mention any people or things, just circumstances….:

1. I get to choose each day how I will spend it.  Being recently retired you do find that you are sometimes busier than what you expect, but that is often a good thing as you can say no or you can say yes.
2. I go into my shed and am grateful that I have a lot of tools and projects to do.  It is my intention to die with at least 10 projects on the go.
3. I am pretty physically okay.  Yeah, I smoke, still, but I am still here and know that my health really is the most important thing to have a happy and active retirement.
4. I am constantly finding new and interesting things to read.  Just lately I have discovered new genre of novel and a few non-fiction books.  I am also finding that they are cheaper and I have learnt to read them on an ipad which I don’t mind as you can read a night without a light and highlight and save text.
5. I am enjoying learning to drive and use my new Kubota!!
6. I really enjoy talking about and planning the things we are going to do around the new house and garden – a big job but one I am looking forward to.
7. I am really enjoying doing more writing.  I am doing a bit of everything including this!
8. I am meditating more and enjoying it – I really think it makes a difference.
9. I am happy with not keeping up with current affairs and watching the news.  It is not that the news troubles me, it is the reporting and sensationalising that gets me going.  I don’t need that in my life – and if it is something important enough someone will tell me.
10. I like to enjoy being with the people I am with and not worrying about those I am not.  We so often wreck an interaction because someone didn’t call us for a while, or when scheduled, or visit, instead of just enjoying the moment when they do.

I just wrote my little descriptions above and decided I would try and get it into a list of one word to best describe what I was really grateful for from each set of circumstances:

1. Choices
2. Projects
3. Healthy
4. Reading
5. Learning
6. Gardening
7. Writing
8. Meditating
9. Positivity
10. Appreciative

Being grateful and showing gratitude, even if it is by not complaining, does make you feel better.

Today I realise I was a day behind in my ‘calendar’ so will be grateful in two ways:

1. Writing about something I feel grateful for in my life today.
2. Writing a short message of thanks about the ‘negative’ things in my life

One
Today I am grateful that I didn’t have to interact with too many people.  I am grateful for me and for them.

Two
Okay this is a hard one – not that today I found the above one easy – obviously!  I have been sitting here for a long time thinking.  On a good day only the people in my immediate vicinity shit me – on a bad day it is planetary.  Doing this reminds me of a series of videos I was going to do called “Things That Shit Me and People Who Can Get Fucked” – it was a way to deal with the “6 Percenters” and those who walk amongst us who really, really, need to be told to get fucked.  I never made the video’s, other than the one telling people why I was not going to make the videos – I still sometimes think I should have made the videos….

So here is my short message for today of thanks about the ‘negative’ thing in my life:

“I am grateful today I did not have to deal with them in any real way”

So, what was today.  Well it was a day when it was hard to be grateful for all the things I know I should be grateful for.  It was a day where it was best to do nothing as opposed to do damage.  It was an inside day with an inside voice.

The best part is that I am appreciating the silence of the end of the day.  Not all days are good days – and I suppose that’s what make the good days good…

Luckily tomorrow is a mystery….. I am grateful for that.

Well, I said I would follow the calendar in yesterdays post…. so hard for me to follow instructions… so here goes – “One word, one letter of the alphabet for things for which you feel grateful”….

Before I actually do this I have decided today to give away the broad brush approach and micro-look at my life.  As most men will know, it is the little things that count:

I am alphabetically grateful for the following things:

Air

Breasts

Cars

Drugs

Envelopes

Food

Guns

Hair

Ink

Jo

Kids

Laughing

Massages

Nature

Office

Peacefulness

Quietness

Red

Sight

Tools

Understanding

Values

Water

PS:  I just wrote the first thing that came into my head – that was positive of course!

Sitting down and writing what you are grateful for is pretty difficult – and I am only on day two!  Gratitude to me does not come naturally! I am writing a separate list each day which I will paste in below as I share it on my Facebook and all the other social media thingos I feel compelled to shovel dribble at, or onto!

And in writing that list I, much like yesterday,  was taking a broad brush approach – much like when you ask people what they want most our of life and they say “To be Happy!”  It doesn’t really mean anything…

I have post-it notes all over my computer with my “Mantras”, lists of little positive sayings, priorities for the day and a bookshelf full of self help books….  for God sake my blog is called Being a Better Man!!!!

Grateful is a hard obsession for someone who is obsessed about being obsessed.

So after my grateful list today (only because I have already written it) I am going to use the www.gratitudechallenge.com calendar and let go of me thinking I am being the better man when I am just really being a control freak!!!!

So here (in an abridged version) is the calendar:

1. Today you start The Gratitude Challenge. Sign the contract and make a commitment to take note and give thanks for the next 21 days. Express why you accepted this challenge and what you hope to achieve from it.
2. One word, one letter of the alphabet for things which you feel grateful.
3. Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today.
4. Write a short message of thanks about the “negative” things in your life.
5. What are you grateful for today – now!
6. Take a few minutes to call someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
7. Take a picture of something you are grateful for.
8. Send thank you notes to five people who deserve a little recognition.
9. Enjoy the people around you.
10. Focus on one sense all day.
11. Try to see the world through the eyes of a child.
12. Everything today has a positive outlook.
13. View three friends or family members through only a positive lens.
14. Review the last two weeks since you started The Gratitude Challenge.
15. Focus on yourself today.
16. In front of the mirror – pick 5 things that you love about yourself.
17. Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today.
18. Write down why you are positively unique.
19. Review and celebrate your life choices in a positive way.
20. Write a thank you note to yourself.
21. Reflect on the 21 days of The Gratitude Challenge and what it meant to you.

…. and today I am grateful for (remember I wrote it before I reviewed the above calendar):

Today I am grateful for:

1. Being Alive
   I know I put this one yesterday as my number one but I had to mention it again – you see I was adopted. So, I am lucky to be alive and put up for adoption – thanks heaps birth Mum Wendy.

2. Having Met my Birth Sister
   Thanks again birth Mum Wendy – I am so very grateful to have my full sister Jo in my life.

3. My adopted Mum and Dad
   I miss them everyday, but I am so grateful they chose me. They are just in my heart everyday.

4. Friends
   You know you have good friend because just thinking of them makes you happy.

5. Technology
   I just love it. When I was a kid I watched science fiction movies and was so disappointed when I thought I would never see these things in my life. Now they are here!

6. Electricity
   The marvel of just flicking a switch and everything comes on. Technology would be a bust without it.

7. Photographs
   I have 58,000 photographs on my computer – they are just like little windows to a moment…. I love looking at them, I weirdly enough love looking at other people photographs even if I don’t know who the people are…!!??.

8. People who Accept Me
   I am not the easiest person to get on with or the best of friends – but, there is a group of people who just accept me, why? I don’t know, but, sht, I am grateful to them – they humble me.

9. Stationery
   I love to write letters – stationery is my friend.

10. Change
    It drive us crazy, but makes us better. I love the feeling of getting out of a rut, even if it is through a change you didn’t instigate or want. Change is, will always be and often is actually better than a holiday.

A friend of mine, let’s call him Adam, because that is his name.  Contacted me recently after finally coming out of a period of adversity and angst.  He said I am taking the gratitude challenge…..

I said “What the….”

It had been my intention to plot with him to seek revenge on the people who had been doing the wrong thing against him – now was the time to strike. (So six months of collecting their garbage and following their family was out the window…. it was going to be a surprise for Adam, but I didn’t mention it….)

He said no, he was going to be grateful for the things in his life as he had been missing them, and most other things in his life while going through adversity.  He had forgot to take notice of his real life and all the good things in it.

For me this was the usual state of affairs…. espousing mindfulness, enlightenment and presence while actually spending most days watching Youtube, reading old novels, drinking, smoking and avoiding people that would irritate me – which is just about everyone.

So, here I am on my blog, undertaking the gratitude challenge.  I have realised there are a million different web sites advocating ‘gratitude challenges’, most doing so genuinely, other than a few using it as a ruse to to sell you stuff – I am already grateful that I have PayPal and didn’t accidentally buy $500.00 worth of porn site access – I was only one click away from the worlds greatest secret on the internet – or so they told me.

I have downloaded a ‘pledge’ to myself to be grateful, printed it out, signed it and includedit here – nothing like public shame to make one be grateful you are in a room where no-one knows you…..  (This always reminds me of when you are getting a stern phone call from a manager or superior and they eventually say with great indignation against your non-cooperative failure to worship them “Do you know who this is” to which you reply “Yes, you are (insert name and important title here)” and them ask “Do you know who this is?” to which they invariably reply “No” – whereupon you say “Well get fucked then” hang up and scarper as fast as you can out of the middle managers office you were in taking a break….)

I also printed out the “21 Day Gratitude Challenge Calendar” which I have blue tacked to the wall   (what is it that blue tack is one of the most under rated substances on the planet and not just a distraction to make the longest blue skinny snake in occupational health and safety lectures…)

All this stuff can be found on their site – http://gratitudechallenge.com

So I have begun – 2 days before fat people start using lent to stuff chocolates into their faces daily – and 25 days before Christmas – just in time to do all my shopping on the last four days when I will believe that everyone should be as grateful as me with the things they already have, so why would I make them unhappy and buy them more stuff?

Notwithstanding some belligerence in my attitude towards the world today, I did manage to write my list of things I am grateful for (Adam said I had to write ten things down everyday – I read the instructions for the ’21 day gratitude challenge’ and that doesn’t appear to be in the rules?  Then again he probably went to a different site and is now figuring out how to hide the purchase of 100 hours of live cam action!)

So here we go:

Today I am grateful for:

1. Being Alive
   I have led a pretty dangerous and neglectful life – I am grateful that I have survived this far – I sure am lucky.

2. Having Whatever Food I Want
   Although this sounds bad, I am just grateful I have food – so many people in the world struggle just to eat.

3. Water
   Although we have storms today and people will have trouble from them – I am grateful our rainwater tanks will be full and we drink clear fresh water everyday.

4. My Wife
   One of the things I am most grateful for in my entire life is my wonderful wife Jo – I would forgo everything for her.

5. Being Retired
   Although I am pretty young (56) I am very lucky (and it was good luck mostly) that I am able to retire securely and think about what to do next – as a matter of fact I am really, really grateful for this.

6. Having a Place to Live
   We have been building a new house for a while and while we were waiting we live in a little rented shack – one evening Jo and I looked at each other and said, if this was it, that would be okay. I am grateful I have a home.

7. Having a Car
   Isn’t it just wonderful that we can jump in a car and travel vast distances.

8. Being in a Free Country
   I am grateful that I can live in a free country and not in fear from government or ideology.

9. My Kids
   I still after all these year can’t believe I am a Dad – I am lucky and grateful for the privilege.

10. Being able to Read and Write
    Both are joys of mine and I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t continue to do both – I am grateful for being able to read and write – not so much my spelling!