24 Things I’m Grateful For

Of the many things I’m grateful for, let’s start with 1) a garden and 2) a library. (“Those with a garden and a library have everything.” Cicero)

Next up:

3. My readers, correspondents, patrons and financial supporters: Of Two Minds exists because of you.

4. Everyone who supports independent thinkers and creators. On behalf of every independent creator of content, thank you.

5. Opportunity. Opportunity sounds good but it’s not easy. We often learn more from failure than success, so opportunity is often misread. A reader who managed to extricate himself years ago from an oppressive, dictatorial regime and make his way to the U.S. submitted this comment a decade ago:

“We live a very simple and happy life. It is amazing to see how most Americans do not have a clue of the unlimited opportunities we all have here. Most people want ‘instant gratification’ and they are not willing to sacrifice to get what they want, instead they choose to live above their means and go into debt for the rest of their lives.”

6. Thrift: use it until it shreds.

7. Beautiful fresh vegetables:

8. When all seems lost… a dramatic reversal: The Catch, Joe Montana to Dwight Clark:

9. Camping in national parks: Glacier National Park.

10. Yellowstone National Park: tent camping, first snow of the season.

11. Blue sky.

12. Rainbows.

13. Redwoods.

14. Magic. To do good, of course….

15. Handmade leis.

16. homemade pizza.

17. Homemade dessert.

Don’t let the dessert cart on the Titanic go by….

18. The amazing colors of flowers:

19. Walk-in beaches and campsites: no roads, no vehicles, effort fully rewarded:

20. Home-baked bread and other goodies: Simit…

21. Inspiration:

22. Making music: any kind or style is good, nothing else like it…

23. Undiscovered gems you zoom past a hundred times and then finally stop to savor.

24. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (John 8:7-9)