During the days leading to Thanksgiving, Kristine of Child of Divorce—Child of God is making a list of 1,000 things for which she's thankful. She's up to 264 so far (scroll down her blog to see), and the list is just delightful. A random sample:
214. People who put perfectly good wooden desk chairs out for the trashI started to make a list of my own, but immediately ran into trouble, because I don't want to be a copycat, and Kristine seems to have already thought of the good ones (like electricity and "being in my right mind" — though she links "right mind" to a page about being left-handed, which I'm not).
215. Clean sheets
216. Being able to paint my office pink
217. Knowing "this too shall pass"
218. The phone not ringing once (elections are over)
So, here's 30 not-too-derivative entries (save for the big ones uptop), with perhaps a few more to come, depending upon popular demand. Also, Kristine asks her readers to comment with lists of things for which they're thankful; I echo that request.
Starting with some of the big ones, and drifting into no particular order:
1. My faith
2. God's having healed me of depression
3. Being Catholic
4. My family
5. My friends
6. My home
7. Living in a beautiful town
8. Living three blocks from the train to New York City
9. The fact that the clothes I bought over the past few years still fit
10. Sisters of Life
11. Sushi
12. Free Mexican generic pseudophedrine in the medicine cabinet at work
13. The West 33rd St. Jesus statue
14. Touchstone
15. Babies that stare at me in quiet fascination
16. My stepmother's watercolors
17. Richard Rodgers' "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
18. The Bible
19. Getting highlights
20. People who make me laugh
21. Cornflower-blue glass
22. People with fuzzy hair who let me feel their head (just once)
23. Having big lips
24. Surprisingly sunny and mild November days
25. Cats in other people's homes
26. Discovering that the ladies'-room stall has a hook for my purse
27. G.K. Chesterton
28. Used bookstores
29. Shop employees I barely know who yet seem genuinely happy to see me
30. Discovering that the place where I'm staying has an old-fashioned, water-wasting shower head