#1 – open doors and windows. There is nothing better than having the windows and doors open and letting fresh air and sunlight in. I’m grateful I can do this at work (especially the last 2 days when I’ve been alone) to appreciate the sight and sounds of nature. To able to sit at my desk, look out the door and see the fall colors starting to change. It’s very calming and very stress relieving to just sit and appreciate it all.

#2 – overactive imagination…the stories I tell myself and create sometimes to the detriment of my own mind but more often than not to just escape the mental dreariness of day to day living. I sometimes feel like Walter Mitty or Don Quixote. Some of the stories I write down. Some I just create to fall asleep, but I’m thankful for my creative and overactive brain…even when the vampire clawing at window ideas make me pull the blankets around my head a little bit tighter. It means I’m alive.

#3 – growing older, but not up…Jimmy Buffett sang it best in his song “Growing Older But Not Up”: “I’m growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I’d rather die while I’m living then live while I’m dead.” I’m grateful I still have a childlike awe with almost everything and that I can sit for hours on end occupying myself with pen and paper or arts and crafts. Being a kid is good for the soul.