Gratitude In All Things

It's easy to be grateful for the big things in my life.  I live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood.  There's enough food to eat.  Although Hubby Tony's caught up in the government shutdown mess he'll eventually get paid, and since there's only two of us in the house our expenses are low while we're waiting it out.

The little stuff, though, often slips by unnoticed. Today I made an effort to notice and be grateful for them, too:

• On the way to the gym I got stuck behind a slow-moving car. The signal turned yellow just as he was pulling through a light, forcing me to stop for the red.  However, that car was long gone by time I started up again; since I was the first car at the light I could set my own pace.

• After the gym I was on my way to work, driving east on a major street (two lanes in each direction with a turn lane in the middle).  They were doing some road work on the westbound lanes, forcing all the traffic to move into one lane.  The traffic jam was a half mile long.  I sailed by all of it.

• Before I started my shift at the mall Customer Service desk I was killing time by checking Facebook on my phone.  One of the cleaning people stopped by to talk with me.  She could have just as easily walked by.

• It was a beautiful fall day, and I didn't particularly want to be stuck inside, but if I hadn't been there I would have missed talking with a nice family from Denmark.  I also would have missed out on a compliment I received from a sales clerk when I returned some paperwork to his store.
• When I realized my phone needed to be charged I was happy that the boss uses the same type of charger and has an extra one in the office.

• I was glad I ate an orange on the way home instead of with my lunch; it was so juicy I ended up with orange splotches all over the front of my shirt.

Five years ago today: New Thing #271--Can You See Me?