BS: Gratitude, Dude

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 07:03 PM

The Mudcat has allowed me to find some really good people whom I would never have met in real life. I am truly grateful for that. I have appreciated the riposte, banter, tears, laughter, wit and humour; incisive thought, hot debate, the Travel Companion thread (incidentally, NO ONE has replied to my offer of $11.37/week, so I'll make it an even $12.00/week--I won't go into what's happenin' to my libido here), the Remembrance Day thread and so many others. I am grateful for this site and the people who visit, write and share. Thank you, Jerry, for another wonderful thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: LilyFestre
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 05:42 PM

Isn't it amazing how even the things that appear to be nothing but heartache often contain some teeny tiny amount of good that you can be thankful for? I think it is. I am grateful for both the obvious and not so obvious things in my life....most especially I am thankful for the friendship of those around me.

Peace.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Hollowfox
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 01:03 PM

I was just thinking this morning how grateful I am that I have friends that I met when I was married. When he left me, it turned out that they thought he was an asshole. The point is that they put up with him all those years because they thought I was worth their time.
It sounds a bit strange, I know, but my life is all the sweeter for their patience.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: fat B****rd
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 10:48 AM

I really do try to count my many blessings but Mr. Hypocrite occasionally emerges andI have to kick myself up the backside.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 10:22 AM

I am grateful for the endless "Second chances" I've had in life. Every new day is a "Second chance" to get my life "right."

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: SueB
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 04:45 AM

When my youngest was just six, we had a bad horseback riding accident that resulted in her being broken into what seemed like a million pieces - I still remember the intensity of the gratitude that I felt, to the local volunteer EMT people, to the helicopter people, to the emergency room people, to everyone who had made the choices in their lives that led to them being there just when my daughter and I needed them - funny thing is, there was a point at which I was absolutely sick of being grateful, which I still haven't figured out. Lately I am most grateful for the book club ladies and the spinning and weaving guild ladies who have somehow taken me under their wings and mothered me as I have never been mothered before, and I am grateful for the Mudcat - there are days when I want to respond to every single thread I open, and many many more days when I am just content to read and laugh my ass off at this wonderful community of kind friendly thoughtful knowledgable people -
you all inspire me.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: KT
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 03:53 AM

Mudlark , what a great story! In Janita's mind, It was probably such a little thing for her to do.....she most likely had no idea how much joy you would really derive from her kindness! Happy playing!!

When I think of the things for which I am grateful,with reference to the last 24 hours, I have to include having friends with whom to make music!      KT

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Mudlark
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 03:15 AM

What a great thread.

I'm grateful today for just about the nicest birthday present I've ever received. I took a friend to Blue Lion Instruments today. She is facing a long, snowy winter and decided she needed a dulcimer to keep her company. Bob and Janita are 2 of the nicest people I know, and we had a great time, listening to them both play a little. At one point Janita brought out her bass dulcimer as I'd never heard one played. Oh my, what a great, sexy, gutty sound!

My friend decided to buy a dulcimer and while they were concluding their business I was playing around with that bass dulcimer, just intrigued with the sound, and thinking to myself, boy, I wish I had one of these to just fiddle with for a while to see if I could learn to play it well enough to want to own one.

Just before we left, Janita came out with a dusty case. In it was a gorgeous bass dulcimer, fretboard beautifully inlaid from top to bottom, and with that same great bass-y sound. She handed it to me and said, "Why don't you babysit this for us for a while. We made it for someone who eventually decided the dulcimer wasn't really the instrument for them and they returned it. Play it until a buyer comes along."

I was stunned, and...grateful isn't even the word for it. To have a wish--a musical wish involving an instrument!--granted so instantly still takes my breath away. I'm not a very skilled dulcimer player and I dont know if I can work out anything with a bass, but I am excited to have the opportunity to try and with such a beautiful instrument.

I am grateful for the loan, grateful for such generous trust, grateful for the friendships that music has brought to me. I feel very lucky tonight!

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Justa Picker
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 11:26 PM

I am grateful ....
to continue supporting the pharmaceutical industries.

The one good thing I'm finding about aging, is that they have a pill for just about whatever needs tweaking.

Once upon a time we did drugs to GET high.
Now, we do drugs to feel NORMAL.

Wonderful what they can do these days. 8-)

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:38 PM

Everything. If I start naming things, I'll leave something out!

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Metchosin
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:33 PM

I think I've posted this here before but it is worth repeating.

I'm grateful for bureaucratic screw ups and red tape. At the beginning of WWII, my father-in-law Bob, voluteered for the RCAF and trained as a Flight Engineer. There were 14 in the original group of volunteers that trained with him, who were sent from Canada, after their training and seconded to the RAF in the UK. When they arrived in England, my father-in-law's papers, along with another fellow's, did not arrive. Consequently, the two of them were assigned work as airframe mechanics temporarily with the RAF ground crew, until the proper documention arrived from Canada.

Two weeks later, when the proper papers finally came, every one of the original Canadian contigent had been killed in action except for my father-in-law and his friend, who remained grounded. The RCAF decided they were too valuable as airframe mechanics to send them up as per their original training and they remained as ground crew until the end of the War.

I probably would not have met and loved a remarkable and truly fine gentleman, that was my father-in-law, Bob, were it not for a bureaucratic blunder. I also would not have the wonderful husband and family that I love and enjoy either.

I try to remember this when things get screwed up royally.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:11 PM

I am grateful for the existence of a funny thing called Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: pdq
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:09 PM

Jerry...thanks for starting so many threads where everyone can play.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:06 PM

Just for being alive, and for my family....all of them, including you all.....

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:02 PM

I've also been thing of a G word lately. Gratefull. For many things, I am indeed gratefull. I won't go into all of them here, but I am most gratefull for my brother, who has helped me out so much this past three years. He's not close at hand, which makes his help all the more special to me. This one's for you, Tom.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 09:52 PM

Good on ya dude...after all, it is a matter of perspective. Times like those, when I run into a minor obstacle that looks like it's going to take an inordinate amount of time to overcome, I try to go into what I call, perhaps incorrectly, my "Tao mode." Which means, I tell myself that the only thing that matters at this point in time is that I accomplish whatever it is that I'm engaged in at the moment, and I have the rest of my life to fulfill this goal. If I die in the process, then it is no less ignoble in the grand scheme of things than dying in the process of scaling Mt. Everest.

Well, what the hell, it works for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 09:40 PM

The young woman got her PhD in biology and came to thank me for whatever help I gave her. Oh, yeah -- she has MS.

Or the girl who I helped find information on mummification for -- who went to State in the science fair competition for mummifying a squirrel, and who was nice enough to thank me.

Or the fellow soldier who grabbed me as I went sliding by him, 200 feet up in a dustoff. I was grateful that time!

Subject: RE: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: KT
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 09:37 PM

Yeah, well, there we were in the Mudchat, a few of us, talking about gratitude. I mentioned to Jerry that he has this way of starting wonderful threads here, and suggested he start one on gratitude. So here it is. I also mentioned that keeping a gratitude journal has a way of enhancing one's outlook. Not in a Pollyanna sort of way...not at all , but it does something to one's way of thinking.

So, when I review this day, I can say I am grateful to have spent some wonderful time with my son. A simple thing, and I am grateful for it.

Who's next?

Subject: BS: Gratitude, Dude
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 08:34 PM

I was talking with KT in Mudchat, and she asked me to start a thread on gratitude. I'll let her share her thoughts, as this was her idea.
And a good one.

Let me offer my gratitude for getting stuck in the slow line at the check out counter.

A few months ago, I was in a line at a supermarket that seemed to be freeze-framed in time. When I looked ahead to see what the problem was, there was a new girl on the register and she was getting increasingly flustered. People were giving her expired coupons, or coupons for the wrong size package, and she was messing everything up.
Someone had to come over to bail her out when she got completely confused. The guy in front of me was complaining very loudly, and getting increasingly obnoxious, and the girl looked like she was about to cry. I finally said to the man, "My wife and I just came back from visiting someone in a nursing home who has cancer and will never walk again. She would give anything to take your place waiting in line, if you'd take hers."

After that, he didn't say another word, but after the girl had checked
him out and he was walking away, he turned around and called back, "Have a nice day!" The girl broke into the warmest smile and looked at me in gratitude. And I was thankful that I had been there.

It's all yours, KT..

The thread title is mine, not KT's.

Jerry