Every Thursday, during the month of November, a guest blogger will offer thoughts here on gratitude.
This week, I’m honored to introduce you to Adam Walker. Adam and his wife Kate are dear friends of mine. In addition to being a friend to many and husband to Kate, Adam is a dad; a son; a brother; a naturalist; a writer; artist; seeker and a very generous soul.
I invite you to respond to Adam’s post here.
Here’s what he has to say about gratitude…
I’ll be honest. I am approaching the age period when things such as mid life crises are known to occur. At the moment I am unemployed. I drive an old Buick. I don’t own a home. I have terrible teeth. I could go on.
Last week my brother called. He and our dad were in a really bad wreck; they came out of the ordeal unscathed. Just some cuts and scratches, bruises, and the overall soreness that results from learning the principles of Newtonian motion in real time. The whole scenario involved a partially heeded stop sign, a fast moving Suburban, and a stationary log truck on the other side of the intersection. It was not a pleasant picture. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. They are really lucky to have walked away from something like that.
Close calls will open eyes and minds sometimes. I am so grateful to have my father and brother still here with me. In an instant, in one slender moment of time, things can change. When it’s smooth sailing, it is easy to become complacent and forget; take it all for granted.
Gratitude is being appreciative of and happy with what you have right now. Forget all the things you want. Or had. Or need. Just think about what you have at this moment in your life. And consider how lucky we really are to just even be here at all. How amazing it is to just be.
I am happily married to a great and beautiful woman. We have a wonderful little boy. We have amazing families and true friends. We are alive and together in this little sliver of time and space in the universe. I am grateful to be here.
As I write this today, Chilean miners are emerging from half a mile underground after 69 days of darkness. Wow. I can only imagine how they feel, feeling the sunlight, seeing their families, emerging back into the world. Alive.
Gratitude.
That old Buick I drive doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
What a nice way to start to my day…being reminded of all I have and am grateful for!!!!!
YES, life really is about the small and simple things!
INDEED, Judi!
Adam sounds like a man who doesn’t need to be “reminded.” Tears filled my eyes that Adam was thinking of the Chilean miners with all he has on his own plate.
My heart goes out to Adam and his family. I wish him a good job soon.
Take care, Adam. You’re definitely a “keeper.”
I have known Adam and his wife since the days when they were young, creative middle school & high school art students. How timely for me to read Adam’s message today, a day on which I was feeling a little down. It has made me smile to think how the table has turned, and I am now the student rather than the teacher; needing to learn, once again, to be aware of how much there is to be grateful for, each minute I am alive on this plane of existence. Thank you, Adam, and say “hey” to Kate for me! (:
So good to see Adam’s thoughts about “what is enough”, and what we need to be grateful for. Adam loves the Earth like I do…a true naturalist. We so often fail to see what we have in life because we’re so caught up in what we want. If we’re lucky, we have those moments in life that MAKE us appreciate what we have. It’s up to us to actually remember them.