Reverb10 - December 14

Appreciate.

What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

Me.  That is it.  Just little o' me.

I have been through a lot in my lifetime, I really have.  Some of it is public, but a whole heck of a lot of it, and probably the single most thing that has shaped all those troubled years still stays buried inside of me.  I suspect it always will.  That's not to say that I have had any rougher of a time than anyone else (but its all relative); and honestly a lot of it I put myself through, over and over again.  Just always searching, trying to fill holes, trying to squash memories...It took a few incidents back in 2004 for me to finally, once and for all, begin to change the rest of my life.

I don't believe that I am quite finished with me just yet...but I am so close.

My expression of gratitude is simple.  Not only do I acknowledge 'me' but I take care of 'me'..specifically by giving my body (and mind) what it needs to be as healthy as possible, as in the way of what goes into it on a daily basis, but more importantly what I don't put into it.  Sure I slip up a time or two, but I am no drill sargent, but one thing I still think does irrepairable damage is excess.  Excessive alcohol and excessive food (in its processed forms).

As someone who once did that (and more, much much more), I have personally seen the changes both internally and externally as to what a healthier lifestyle can do for a person. 

I 'work' my body and my mind through exercise, learning new things, and being curious.

I am not being holier than thou or knocking on whoever out there chooses to do what they do (or not do)...but I also generally will excuse myself from situations that are uncomfortable to my way of thinking.

And I leave this post with one a quote that I think is fitting:

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson