I’ve been feeling so grateful lately — which is a nice thing after a good long while of feeling like I was, as I told a good friend, “in my cranky phase of life.” And one of the things I’ve been thankful for recently is the confluence of work and doing what I want to be doing.
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(Mt Hood and the Columbia River from Coyote Wall)
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I know I don’t talk about work so much, but I have been so, so grateful for my roam at work, for the fact that “working” sometimes actually entails running on trails, which is something as you know I also do in my non-work time for fun. Yes: if I’m working it looks much different, and I may not go exactly where I want, and I focus on different things and make a lot more stops to take notes and make maps. (Though gosh, I do love me a good map;)
So it may not look exactly how it would if it were truly unclaimed adventure time, but there’s still the fact that yesterday I spent all day running the trails at Coyote Wall to plan for potential early spring work there, and it was a glorious day, and I just kept thinking holy shmoly I am actually getting paid right now!
So that kind of thing strikes me as incredibly lucky, and I am grateful <3
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(even if holy moly it was muddy and so, so slippery!)
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And I guess it feels important to hold onto these gratitudes, because it’s easy (for me) to feel hopeless or angry or overwhelmed with the world or the climate or how it seems sometimes that people treat each other — but then there’s this, this world out here, and this running, and these other people also delighting in the beautiful day, and that feels important. And I have all these collected moments of life and beauty and gratitude and no, they don’t sum total make America less fascist or our current president less of a psychopathic narcissist, but they do remind me that it is a wide, beautiful world regardless. And that feels like an important thing for me to hold onto. It’s not enough to solve all the world’s problems, but it’s enough to make me think that at least trying to plug away at some of the world’s problems might be possible after all. Which seems like a good place to start.
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(oh, it was muddy and cold! heh. And I loved it very much:)
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So I’ve been trying to notice and hold gratitude closely to my heart, and today I feel so incredibly grateful for this life I’ve built where I get to do things I love and spend my time largely outside and though I will never make six figures doing so, it is enough and I am full. And that is great.
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(sending love and happy thoughts from Coyote Wall:)