31 Gratitudes

What I wanted to write was “Gratitude³¹” but apparently I can only do that in the body of my blog post, not the title. (I am learning to live with the disappointment.)

It’s the end of March, the end of the 10^th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. And I have made it here once again. Made it here for the 10^th time in a row.

Today I’m going to bed in the middle of the afternoon so that I can get as much sleep as I can before I have to head out at 11pm to catch a bus and then a train and head into Manhattan to start the midnight-to-6am leg of the 24HourProject.

But before all of that, there is this: my final slice for this March challenge. I thought I’d end this month of slices with a list.

So here, on this 31^st day of March in 2017, are 31 things I  am grateful for:

1. The chance to rediscover favorite slicers from years past
2. The chance to discover and get to know new slicers
3. The chance to see how everyone’s kids have grown since the last slicing challenge
4. The excellent reminder of how much I am inspired by reading other people’s work
5. The reminder of how powerful it is to write every day
6. The surprise of realizing that I actually can write every day – even when I’m tired, even when I’m cranky, even when I feel as if my mind is entirely blank when I sit down in front of the empty page
7. The lead-in the slicing challenge gives me to the dramatic terror that is about to be National Poetry Month
8. The fun of writing with my mentee every week
9. My determination to get through the #52essays2017 challenge even though I’ve already fallen behind
10. My mom, who is very cute, evidenced by the envelope that arrived in my mailbox the other night … an envelope that contained coupons for the kind of food my cats like
11. My mom, who is full of love for me all the time, even when I’m whiny or tired, even when I’m a slug and don’t call as often as I should, even when I tease her for sending me cat food coupons
12. My new knees, which have finally turned the corner toward more healed than healing
13. My new knees that don’t make that weird percussive noise they used to make
14. My new knees that made it through the winter without any slips and falls
15. My heart, which didn’t stop working when things went wonky with it this summer
16. My heart, which is now bionic/Borg, with its shiny new microchip
17. (My microchip that looks kind of like a tiny harmonica)
18. My heart, which is transmitting to the cloud even as I type this
19. The end of the season of surgeries
20. The conversations I get to have with my super-woke coworker who helps keep me focused on the day-to-day fight, not just the big-picture battles
21. My other coworkers who are in these conversations with us, who make me happy that I work with people I can have these conversations with
22. The outrageousness of chocolate geodes
23. My old computer, which — after the great my-time-here-is-done debacle of Thanksgiving 2016 — kept working until I finally got my act together to get a new one
24. My new computer, which is sleek and fine and fully functional
25. Being introduced to the Bullet Journal, which has helped me focus on my 400,000 to-dos and plans in a more helpful way
26. My sister, whose birthday is today and who I’ll get to see over Easter!
27. My sister, who is the best friend I’ve ever had
28. My sister, who shares my warped humor and always gets me
29. My sister, who can laugh and laugh over just a snippet of memory from past nonsense (“Hey, Mommy, how d’you like your steak?”)
30. My sister, who introduced me to Habitica, a fun way to keep me working on the things I need to get done
31. You, dear reader, who do me the honor of stopping by to visit, to read, to comment … Thank you! I appreciate all of you!

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It’s the final day of the 10th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge!
Head over to Two Writing Teachers to see all of today’s slices!

Get ready for poetry!!