Apart from the obvious things I appreciate,
such as my family and the opportunity to go to college and get a further education,
I wanted to take a moment to share a few things that I appreciate.
Putting on a fresh pair of socks.
Kind of a simple one,
but after watching a video by Clara from Great Depression Cooking here on YouTube
where she talks about how she had to drop out of high school because she couldn't afford socks,
I really appreciate them and the fact that I can afford to have them.
Rest in Peace, Clara.
The first snow.
It snowed here on the East Coast for the first time this winter just a few days ago.
I've lived most of my life in Michigan and typically saw the snow start to fall in October,
so it's nice that it's finally feeling like winter here.
Hugging a pet.
Nothing's better than giving my boys a big hug right after a long day!
Pets are so wonderful and their company brings me so much joy.
Watching and listening to the birds.
As weird as it is, I feel like I've always connected with birds.
I used to spend hours as a kid listening and watching the various species flutter around my backyard.
Though I don't have a backyard to call my own anymore due to moving quite a bit in the past two years,
I still listen and watch the birds wherever I go.
Flopping down on the bed in letting gravity pull all of my weight down.
After walking around all day long or completing a time-consuming energy-eating task,
this is just the perfect and most logical thing to do for me.
I'll just plummet it and flop all my weight down and stare at the ceiling.
Being so silent and still and just thinking about things.
Kind of following the last one here, I do this when I flop down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling.
Remembering that my heart is beating and that I'm breathing every second of every day
and thinking about how I have a brain to comprehend things and talk to people
and love and hate and be happy and sad and nostalgic.
And the fact that you can even understand the meaning of the words I say here
and just everything.
It reminds me to take a step back sometimes from this craziness of a life we've all created.
Homemade gifts and items.
Something about the idea of someone taking the time to make something with you in mind
makes my heart extremely happy.
It's one of a kind and such a beautiful thing for somebody to do.
Getting a letter addressed to me in the mail.
When I moved for the first time,
something that kept me going were these letters I would send and receive
from one of my best friends from Michigan.
We would catch each other up on what was going on in our personal lives,
something that we could have done over text messages a lot quicker,
but it would have taken away the personal aspect of it all.
I still have all of those letters, and she and I still send letters to each other to this day.
The chilly, blue sky, white puffy cloud days.
I really don't know what it is about this, but these kind of days just choke me up.
It's those fall and winter days with the cloud-covered skies and the blue peeking through
that just gets to me every time.
There's a picture I took on the way back from one of my younger cousin's basketball games one winter day in Michigan.
We were in the middle of nowhere and we looked outside at this beautiful sky.
When I look at it, I can just remember the stillness of everything and how silent it all was.
I've kind of always felt this way.
And when I see the sky like this these days,
it still gets to me.
Freshwater beach.
Now living closer to the saltwater beach as compared to living near Lake Michigan my whole life,
I can definitely say that I appreciate my old lake.
Though the ocean is absolutely gorgeous, and there's these adorable little sand crabs everywhere,
nothing beats the freshwater beach... for me at least.
I was born and raised in it
and I think always feel this way.
The list could go on and on, and maybe I'll make a part two one day,
but for now, here's what I have to share.
I hope this evoked at least one person to think about a little thing that means a lot to them in their life.
Have a lovely morning, afternoon, evening, or night, and I'll see you again soon.
Peace!
