I woke up from the sun shining through my window, but I didn’t notice too much.  Quickly my mind wandered to what I needed to accomplish today. Not on how to make the most of my free day, but more on what I had to get done on this one chance to catch up. And so the day began with a focus on obligation and without gratitude, setting the stage for what attitude my day would be dominated by.  I had to go coach, I had to run, I had to organize, I had to be home at a certain time, and I had to meet my friends a bit later. I needed to get this and that done, and I felt so tired.  Much of the day was a sleepy blur, even though there was not much there to legitimately be blamed for exhausting me.

Tonight I walked into my house, sank down in my fluffy chair, and turned on some Ed Sheeran. My mind wandered until it slowed on a cursory memory from the day.  It was four lines of dialogue from a carpool conversation earlier this evening that, just like that early morning sunlight, wasn’t paid much attention to. One man said “Lexington is a great place, but some people say it’s pretty hard to get into the social scene because it’s so cliquey.” I responded, “Yeah, I heard that from someone else, but I haven’t seen that.” Then my good friend chimed in from the back seat, “You have me to thank for that. I got you in past the cliques when you got here.” “You did help me out with that…” I said thinking of my arrival to the city nine months ago. Then we got out of the car and were on to another tangent topic.

We exited the car into a gorgeous evening and walked to a football game where I drank, danced, cheered and laughed with some great, genuine people who I get to call my friends.  Friends who were helping me to kick-start a dream project and to organize a race of my dreams. This was a game that they’d called me up to go to with a free extra ticket.  While at the game I met up with my sister and her husband who I’d seen earlier with my year old niece when they came to the house I’ve recently moved into with an old friend and helped me set up some new furniture which a generous friend gave to me the day before. They were at the game because of tickets given to me from a thoughtful client who I train at the gym I work at.  The gym job was found from a contact at the Lexington soccer office that also put me in touch with the soccer club I coach for, which ended up being a connection to the university I help coach for.  The contact at the soccer office was made because of a pastor at my sister’s church (which is now also my church) who went out of his way to help get me moving when I came into town and who supports my family and me at every turn of the road.  From one fortunate connection to another, my life splayed out in front of me as I sat silent in the comfy chair.

Incredible opportunities and experiences are the breadth of my life, and though they come with responsibilities and challenges, they are gifts.  In fact, even those responsibilities and challenges are gifts in the sense that I’m the one getting to take care of them and find solutions.  The fact that I had to remind myself of how great things are going is a little embarrassing, and it makes me feel a little like a brat.  Therefore, I want to become more conscious of all these things I’m so grateful for.  I’ve meant to start a gratitude journal for a very long time, and now seems like a perfect time to start.  It’ll be my own version of 1000 awesome things that I can check in to and keep me conscious of the wonderful things and people around me.  Tonight, I’m thankful for more things than I can count, and as I sit on my bed, feeling the cozy softness of my comforter, I look around my room seeing the impressions of people in my past and present. I’m grateful for all of you, and my heart is overflowing.