A Week of Gratitude

   Thanksgiving week is here again. In an effort to more fully celebrate this holiday, I did something that I did last year. Everyday for one week I'm going to post on Facebook something for which I am thankful.
  I have set some rules for this. I must be truly grateful for what I post. I cannot recycle posts from last year. I also have to explain why I am grateful for the item or person. Preferably I would post about things that we would take for granted.
  For instance, this year I posted a picture of my furnace and how I am grateful for it. The first house I bought was built around 1910. Obviously it had been updated. There were still some signs that the house was built in another age. The basement was stone. There was also a strange shape on the concrete floor. This was because the original furnace was a spider furnace. It's called a spider furnace for all the ductwork that is connected to it. It also burned coal. There was a corner of the basement where the walls were black and there was a small chute had been blocked off. This was where the coal was kept for the furnace. I'm glad that I don't have to burn coal and deal with the soot that comes with it. I'm glad I don't have to worry about banking fires or dealing with radiators to heat my home.
  Last year I posted that I was grateful for some of my appliances particularly the refrigerator. I have seen old iceboxes, the precursor to the modern fridge. In order to keep food cool you had to buy ice. The ice was cut from local bodies of water during the winter and stored in ice houses for use. I can't imagine that it worked real well, but it was all that was available. I'm grateful for our fridge that stores our food safely and has a lot of cool looking magnets on it.
  Today I'm grateful for yoga. It's the only form of exercise that I have been able to do on a regular basis. It doesn't take much equipment and there is a lot of variety. If I don't have much time I can do a ten minute flow. If I have more time I can do a couple 20 minute flows. If I need to really work out, I can do a yoga HIIT workout. There is stretching and weight training and even a few that target various parts of the body like legs or abs. So far, I have not been bored with it which is my main challenge with other types of exercise. (Although I really miss running.)
  A few days ago I posted that I was grateful for the quilt on my bed. It was made out of my wedding dress by a friend of mine. It is an amazing work of art, far more than the simple block quilt that I expected. She even made three personalized pieces. One has our names on it and the other two blocks have the dates of our civil wedding and Temple sealing.
  This year I felt it was really important to express gratitude publically. It's been a challenging 12 months. I had surgery and lost three different jobs. ( The job losses were due to business closings and financial difficulties.) There were also some bright spots. I managed to find work fairly quickly. We got an unexpected payoff and we have always been able to pay all our bills. These are things for which I am very, very grateful. Not everyone has the blessings I have had.
  So tomorrow enjoy your day. (or as much of it as you can if you have to work) and think of a couple things that you are blessed to have. It will make everything seem and taste much better.