Out of the Pit Through Gratitude

I started out this morning thinking of things I was grateful for and then I got to feeling sorry for myself about a few things, so I think I'll get back to that first idea. On top of the list of things to be thankful for was electricity. I know, that wasn't very spiritual, was it? No, it was not, but I've been working on gratitude for many years now and you just have to spread gratitude out from time to time outside the high and mighty and super-spiritual realm. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you," (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) the Bible says, not necessarily "for" everything. So, about electricity. My heat is electric and today all day I have been very thankful for electricity. This is the coldest time of the year, and today was in the teens, I'm not sure if it quite made it to 20 and the wind chill was in the single digits all day. Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up a little. I am not thrilled with the electric bill when it comes, but, fortunately, it's only horrible a couple of months out of the year and one of those months is the one that's ending today (January) and the one that's starting tomorrow (February). I still keep my thermostat pretty low. I will not admit how low but it makes me very anxious to hear it kicking on every 20-30 minutes. I just read that in colder weather it's not uncommon to turn on 3-8 times an hour and the rest of the year, maybe only 2-3 times an hour. I planned on not getting out of bed today but staying in all day under the electric blanket. I researched which was better, space heaters or electric blankets, and electric blankets are supposed to be more cost effective for lounging. Then I decided to be brave and get cleaned up, wash my hair, get dressed and go get the mail, but after getting the mail, I decided to go to the gym for a bike ride. So that was my big day. I finished reading "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh." It's a Newbery awarded book (distinguished writing for children's books). It is a very strange book, but fascinating. I like to discover books and how I discovered this one is I bought a copy of it in Spanish at one of our local library book sales. It had a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary in the first chapter, and, long story short, I decided to read it in English first. I read somewhere (online, probably) that if you are going to read a book in a second or third language, you should probably read the book in your native language first, and I agree, so I am going to go ahead and try to read "Don Quixote" in English first too, although I have read part of an abridged version in Spanish. That makes sense. Much too painful to struggle with every unfamiliar vocabulary word. It's like when my second and third grade students read aloud, if they had to sound out every unfamiliar word it would get very tedious for all of us, so I just tell them the word, and we keep the story moving. So, getting back to gratitude, if I were to make a list of five things I'm grateful for today, (1) electricity would be right on top. That covers a lot of ground, light to read by, microwave, stove, hot water, refrigerator, and central heat and air conditioning year around. What a blessing. Those are things I'm very thankful to have in this century, as much as I romanticize about life in the 19th century. (2) I am very thankful for my car even though the longer I have it the more problems I have to deal with. For example, now I have to get new censors for my tires. Don't know how many yet, but I don't like that little horseshoe staying on in front of me all the time, so I have to get that taken care of in the next couple of weeks, hopefully. (3) I am thankful for my apartment. It's very quiet and comfortable. (4) I am thankful for books. (5) And I'm thankful for my job. I love the kids and I love the work and I love the people I work with, and it just doesn't get much better than that. The cold weather wears me out, I think. I'm tired and I want to go to bed. Goodnight.