Choosing To Be Grateful Series

I'm grateful for snow.

I was planning on posting about family again today, but we got snow in Denver and I decided that I should write about how grateful I was for the snow this morning.  It's been very dry here so the moisture was really needed.  I love the way that snow makes everything lighter.  I generally do my morning workout in the dark and this morning was no exception, except that everything glowed ethereally.  I also really enjoyed watching the snow both on the ground and falling from the sky sparkling in the lights.

A couple of weekends ago we made our annual winter pilgrimage to Estes Park.  While we were snowshoeing we got to enjoy a fluffy snowfall.  It was a bit windy and difficult to see in the open, but the trees sheltered us nicely.  We also truly enjoyed how muted all of the sounds were, it was so peaceful (when I wasn't sucking wind!)  We heard birds and we talked some, but otherwise we got to enjoy the quiet splendor of Rocky Mountain National Park blanketed in snow.

It would have been very easy to be stressed about the drive this morning, but instead I chose to focus on how much I enjoy snow.

Choosing To Be Grateful Series

The other night at dinner with friends the topic of the government wanting to study happiness came up.  I said that I’ve been reading a great deal of history books lately and while we have it so much easier and better than people in the past who very often lived short and brutal lives; I think there’s basically a human happiness set-point.  Obviously some people are happier than others, but from an overall standpoint I’m not sure that humans will ever be much happier.  I said that I’m happy but not content.  My husband and I talked later and decided that perhaps that is as it should be.  Too much contentment can stifle creativity and progress.

But even with my overall happiness, I know that I sometimes allow myself to wallow in negativity.  So I’ve decided to start a series where I talk about the things for which I’m grateful that lead to my overall happiness.

So here's the first in my series:

I'm grateful for my husband.  I wasn't always sure that I wanted to get married.  I knew that I could never marry someone like my father because I'm too much like my father.  If that was my only option I thought it would be better to be single.  Then I met my wonderful husband.  He's loving, supportive, and able to deal with me and all of my quirks.  I have a partner who's always on my side.  I have a co-parent and that is definitely helpful so Mommy can have a time-out sometimes.  Our marriage isn't always sunshine and roses, but even when it's not we're on the same team.  It's been almost 14 years now and I still think marrying my husband was one of the best decisions of my life.

Yes, that is an Opeth t-shirt and a Dream Theater hat.  I did marry a music geek!