Thankful for options. In almost every part of my life, I have options to choose from, to solve a problem, or to improve my or someone else’s life.

Thankful for my home and community, with clean water and sanitation.

Thankful for the internet. I can ignore the bad, and appreciate the vast quantity of good I find! Including being able to follow the weather, know when power will be restored, and which Starbucks is open for hot coffee and phone charging lol (btw, not my issue today, but could easily be)

Thankful for my health, my family and my friends - in no particular order 🙂

What a wonderful, positive thread, Tina! Thank you😊!

• I’m grateful for every day of my life. Seriously! My longtime best friend, Tony, drowned on Easter Sunday in a boating accident way back then. He was so young! It broke my heart and shook
  up my life in a huge way! But, I learned then and there to just enjoy and appreciate every darn day of my life. Every one is a gift!
• I’m grateful for my wonderful husband. Such a great, kind human being! Our 42nd anniversary is actually this Monday, January 15th.
• I’m grateful for our two children. I was told I could/would never get pregnant. Our (adopted) son is the most wonderful son we could ever imagine! Nine years later I became pregnant for the first and only time. I went eclamptic at seven months. Our beautiful daughter spent her first two month in NNICU. She’s now a brilliant, wonderful clinical mental health therapist. I am so blessed, two wonderful human beings are my/our kids!!! (PS: as amazing and wonderful and brilliant as our son is, I’m not allowed to say anything more about him or what he does. But he’s one great American hero!)

I'm also thankful for all of the above. Here's three more which came unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago.

1. I'm thankful that DS put a ring on it and made his engagement official. She and I giggle like little girls when we're together.

It's an Irish trinity knot with the big diamond and small diamond trinity knots on each side. It's to rude to ask where he got it. Any idea? Looks vintage.

She's half Irish.

2 & 3. Left side is DGD and I'm so grateful for her, and now I have two more granddaughters. As someone who never had a direct female relative other than mom, it's been kind of a lonely life. Now I have THREE girls!

The two new grands are on the right side. DS stole their Christmas gift.

This is my favorite mischievious smile he has, and the love I can see with all of them makes my heart overflow with joy. Laughter is finally back. The little one in the middle called me grandma the first day we met.

I am thankful for my HS sweetheart, since 1979, who has also been my husband and my rock for nearly 41 years.

Grateful for my wonderful boss and my fabulous company as I wrap up my working life (retiring in just a few months).

Thankful to live in a country where I have the freedom to think my own thoughts and express my own opinions.

Donna

I’m thankful for my husband of 48 years and the wonderful life we have together.

I’m thankful for my daughter who I am so proud of.

I’m thankful for having had 15 years with my son who died way too soon. He was the nicest kid you could imagine and still brings a smile to my face after 32 years of missing him.

Ack! Three isn’t enough.🤠

My top 3 would be the same as most everyone else. So I’ll try to come up with 3 more.

The ability (physically, financially, etc) to travel. I have wanderlust, more and more as I get older and now I feel a sense of urgency because, who knows how much longer DH and I will be able to do this? Hopefully a long time, but I keep thinking we have 10 more years before we are likely to have some physical limitations (hopefully longer!). So that’s a long way of saving I am grateful to get away! We have some exciting trips planned for this year.

And, on the other hand. I love home. My house, the stuff inside, the mementos that evoke memories, and the furry friends curled up on the sofa next to me.

Also thankful for the new family members my kids have brought into the fold. I adore my new DIL and she loves me too! She has been such a wonderful addition to the family. And DD will probably marry her BF. They are only 23 but they have been together through a lot already and he is an awesome guy. So sweet, so appreciative, and also fits in perfectly with our family. He has a great relationship especially with DH and oldest DS. Oldest DS, well, he’s still looking for the right one. But after growing up an only child, I am so thankful for our growing family. Nothing makes me happier than having all of them together.

1. I am grateful for parents who worked very hard to give me and my sister opportunities they did not have.

2. I am grateful for DD’s in-laws who raised a son who is a great father, a wonderful husband, and a delightful son-in-law. (I need to tell them that!)

3. I am grateful for all of the medical professionals who have worked so hard to get DGD back close to normal.

I am thankful for a healthy happy family.

I am thankful for the beauty around me.

I am thankful for dear friends.

Last night I watched a documentary about a family fleeing North Korea. Afterwards I knew I was pretty much thankful for everything in my life.

I am very thankful for family, friends, kind strangers. <- 3 things

Extremely thankful for science and scientists.

I'm immensely grateful for three kind, thriving adult children. I'm also deeply grateful that I have choices in my life, and that I am not beleaguered with the burdens others have such as all-consuming 24/7 care of an elderly parent, or working at a difficult job. And of course so many other things: books, my beloved Vanny, my siblings, the internet which satisfies my curiosity continually, that I have developed handicraft skills over the years which gives me a creative outlet....

Thank you for your responses. I just read through the thread and these answers brought many smiles to my face. Thank you all for brightening my day! I'd say we all have much to be grateful for. Today I am thankful for the beautiful sunshine and also spending the afternoon with the Mr. We are going to run some errands and going to one of the nearby "big cities". We kind of frequent the same restaurants too often in our area, so today we will go somewhere different. We are to be in the 50s today, in between 2 cold spells, so I can't wait to feel the warm sun! Enjoy your day!! : )

We are going to the movies tonight, whoop whoop! I am able to convince DH to go to a movie theater about 2x a year.

Tina, agree that gratitude is such an essential part of unlocking a good life. I'm grateful for good writers, who've given me so many wonderful hours. I'm grateful for animals and I can't begin to count the ways they've blessed my life. And I'm grateful for everyone who does their job, especially flight attendants at the moment.

I keep a gratitude journal in which I write 5 things I'm grateful for every morning. I go through phases of doing this, and I'm in a phase now. The benefits are wonderful for my perspective and outlook, because I can be rather pessimistic otherwise.

Of course, I'm grateful for my health, family, friends, privileges, etc., but a daily practice where I can't simply repeat the obvious forces me to notice smaller instances for which I'm grateful. For example, this morning's entries included:

1. The sun is shining (we haven't seen sun here in quite a while).

2. The garbage man (something was stuck in my can, and he had to exit the truck to manually empty my can).

3. My kind, respectful neighbors (my daily quality of life is improved simply by not living next to jerks).

4. My forgiving (3 past-due notices) local library.

5. The homemade air diffuser concoction I made yesterday evening is working.

I am grateful for family. My parents who gave me a happy childhood, filled with everything I needed if not everything I wanted. 4 siblings who I love dearly and love spending time with(although harder now since they are spread around the country & world. My husband of almost 44 years who loves me for who I am. My two children, precious gifts from afar and couldn't ask for better.

And in no particular order: walking, nice weather year round, gazing at the ocean daily, spending time with my only sister for whom I moved across the country to be near, financial security and finding a good pizza place nearby!

I’m grateful for my kids, who have grown into accomplished, happy adults, who both have fulfilling careers helping others. I’m grateful for my own career doing the same, and grateful to be retired! I’m grateful for all the years I got to share with my DH. I’m grateful for a wonderful group of longtime friends, and the experience of making new ones. I’m grateful for my extended family and for my chosen family. I’m grateful to have a beautiful home and the ability to make it so; to live in an area of natural beauty and like-minded community, to travel and feed my soul with beautiful surroundings, art, and delicious food. I’m grateful I have relative good health to continue to enjoy the sweetness of life. I’m grateful for the Grateful Dead (lol) who came into my life when I was just 21, and brought me, directly and indirectly, so many of the above treasures.
A quote from Patti Smith: “Life is an adventure of our own design, intersected by fate and a series of lucky and unlucky accidents.”

I’m grateful my Mum survived a stroke, and then a fall with head trauma, and is doing exceptionally well.

I’m grateful she lives one mile away, so my daily visit to assist her is so easy. (I am not grateful that she is so bad about taking her medication! It might be the death of me.)

I am grateful I get to drive past the horse farm and admire the horses, on my way to and from her place. They bring me joy to see them, even if they are just standing still in the field.

I am grateful the staff and other residents were she lives are kind, compassionate, lovely people that make living there so pleasant.

I’m grateful for my siblings, in general, but also because all of the burden of helping our Mum does not fall on me.

I am terribly sad about the recent death of a friend, but I am tremendously grateful for the years of friendship we shared.

Chinacatpeekin - I knew you had to be a Dead fan. 😆 Kept meaning to ask you to make sure. That music speaks to me in a way nothing else can compare.

I am grateful to live in a free country (nodding to schoolhouse's post). I am grateful for the grit, intelligence, and good luck which has gotten me to this point in my life. I am grateful for my occasionally dark sense of humor. I have always said the day I can't find something to laugh about is my sign it's time to go.

After the crazy event in our life earlier this week, I am truly thankful for a loving family and friends who have been so kind and supportive.

Also grateful for a place to live that makes me happy.

Thankful for our good health and the ability to get out and travel and do things many cannot do in retirement.

I'm especially grateful that my dad, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer early last year, is doing remarkably well on medication alone after his oncologist suspended chemo due to his excellent lab reports. 2023 was very trying, so this is particularly welcomed.

I'm grateful that although my current employment will come to an end at some point this year, I have options for moving forward which include retirement and moving into new employment. Remains to be seen what will happen, but I'm keeping an open mind and rather looking forward to watching things unfold.

I'm grateful for the comforts of home. I've become such a homebody over the past few years, and unapologetically so. I think it's a testament to a warm home when one prefers to be there than anywhere else.

Probably just pointing out the obvious here but I’m heartened (though not the least bit surprised) that everyone listed connections and experiences, not stuff.

1) Grateful for my family. Married to a wonderful DH for 28 years. After a difficult marriage to the exact opposite type of person, I'm grateful for our loving relationship with zero drama.

Grateful that both my children (one from each marriage) are happy well functioning adults. Grateful that DD from 1st marriage is nothing like her dad and married someone like her step-dad. And the biggest lights in my life are my two adorable grandchildren (DD's children).

2) Grateful DH and I are finally getting to travel after years of some financial constraints. Makes me even more grateful for #1 as our children can more than support themselves (not all our friends have the same luxury).

3) Grateful that retirement is on the horizon. Maybe 1, probably 2, more years but I can see the finish line. And back to #2, grateful we will be able to travel during retirement. But also grateful to have a home I love and love being in and puttering in and can't wait to do that 24/7 in retirement (when not traveling).

And I know you said 3, but I have to add - 4) with everything going on in the world, more than ever I'm grateful to live in a place where we don't fear for our lives every moment.

1. coffee, my DWs 61st birthday monday

2. coffee, our 42 years together and three great kids and 6 grands

3 coffee, and a house and cars that have been paid off for a decade

4. that second pot of coffee, and you guys

This morning I’m grateful to the power company workers. They are out in any weather to repair lines, remove trees, de-ice, just so I can make my coffee. (I know, other neighbors have greater needs than coffee. I’m just feeling giddy with delight and warmth and the sound of the furnace kicking in.)

Bragu, looks like there are a few of us married for 42 years. Also looks like you are greatly enjoying that coffee!! LOL Have a great day everyone and thanks for playing along.