Practicing Gratitude (and a few things I’m grateful for this year)

On the morning of August 22, 2001, I inched out of my hospital bed and into my wheelchair. I’m was off to find a quiet place in the hospital to start my gratitude practice.

I’ve kept a gratitude journal over the years, but I have trouble reading my chicken scratch. So most of the time, I just try to find a moment to reflect each day.

Gratitude is joy’s secret sauce. It’s uncorked a few nice bottles of wine during celebratory times, and it revealed the building blocks of a better tomorrow during the challenging ones.

I know this week has felt heavy for many, including me. It feels like an overstuffed weekend-getaway backpack that we’ve been carrying around since March.

Last night, I heard a doctor share that we should write-off 2020. I get it; it can feel like a complete loss sometimes — literally and figuratively.

That’s why this month in our leadership academy, we’ve been working on our gratitude practices to help us stay present as we confront dumpster fire after dumpster fire. And like anything worth doing, we’ve discovered that it’s not easy, but we get better at it with practice.

This morning something woke me up at 4 am, and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I spent time going through my 2020 gratitude reflections, and here’s a sampling of what I found:

I’m grateful for…

The smell of my wife’s homemade bread and granola just before it comes out of the oven, family dinners, and heated debates like, is a brownie a cookie (which it is, by the way)?

How our daughters inherited my wife’s grit, our oldest is starting her professional life, and our youngest continues to make me a better person.

Jester’s ear-piercing barking because he’s trying to protect us, and how Jens and Phinney figure-eight my legs when they need dinner. I’m grateful that Hope (of course, we have a dog named Hope) tries to worm inside me when she feels a storm coming.

Do you know how the air feels right before a storm? I’m grateful for that feeling, as well as a cozy sweatshirt, a full mug, and a good puzzle once it comes. Oh, and our generator if it’s a doozy.

I’m grateful that my glass is half-full. We have our health, and only have first-world problems — perspective matters.

I’m also grateful for…

The first few seconds Tom Sawyer, Crazy Train, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Enjoy the Silence, and anything by Queen, and that moment when you see the stage for the first time at a live concert — I miss those moments.

The one hundred fifty million people who voted this year, and that more of us know that others don’t have the privilege of not worrying while driving. I’m grateful the unlearning is uncomfortable, and sometimes the best addition is through subtraction.

The sound of clipping into my pedals and shifting gears — it’s like music. I’m grateful for every cyclist who rides wisely because they make it safer for every other cyclist.

I’m grateful for my breath — every full, shallow, and fire-breathing one. And this one………………and this one………………..and this one …………..

This week’s video is all about one other thing that I’m grateful for this year, and it involves you as a member of our peloton — because you make it easier to keep pedaling.

Let me know what you are grateful for below.

Until next week, remember to pause, breathe, and reflect, and, of course, have fun storming the castle!

Michael