Okay - life is at least somewhat back to normal. By that I mean that, as we speak, I'm sitting in my chair in my home office, listening to a staff meeting ("Pretty crazy in the Loadtest arena...") and trying to catch up on some Gomez classes.

As a result of this return to normalcy, I'm going to start the 21 Day Gratitude Challenge again.

First off, I'm grateful for rain:

                 
...but maybe not this much. Too much of a good thing?

New River is, right now, actually a RIVER - and many of the people who "live in New River" are, currently, LIVING in the New River - that is, if they can swim.

The area is being evacuated - no, not us. We're up a little higher than that.

I'm struggling to be grateful here - since all of this rain is falling, that means it is snowing like crazy up in the mountains - Ethel says ten feet this week. She and her sponsor are driving up to Pinetop tomorrow so that they can ski powder on Saturday and Sunday - I have a commitment that is keeping me here through the weekend (no, there is no honorable way out of that commitment. I've already struggled with that, as well : ) but I'll get up there in time to ski on Monday, at least.

So this is the first day of the Gratitude Challenge (again). So the assignment is:

"Sign the contract and make a commitment to take note and give thanks for the next 21 days. Express why you accepted this challenge and what you hope to achieve from it."

First off - before I actually sign the contract (I'm waiting on Ethel to print it for me) I suppose that I should point out that I'm grateful that I speak English - however, since I do speak English, I'm aware of the ambiguity in the preceding paragraph - am I supposed to give thanks for the next 21 days, like it says? That's all?

Okay, here we go - "I'm grateful for the next 21 days - three whole weeks. Thanks, God!"

Since I first decided to do the Gratitude Challenge, I've skiied quite a few days with Ethel my ski buddy. I've made an offer on a Colorado ski condo (it hasn't been accepted yet) and now so much snow has dumped up in Pinetop where we have rented a ski cabin for two months that they are actually evacuating people in Forest Lakes are because there has been so much snow.

So I suppose something like that is what I was hoping for - not that neat things would happen, but that I would SEE the neat things that happen.

Right now, I'm not seeing much happiness, but that's got a lot to do with my neck being out - ouch. Levator scapula and such - not extremely painful; just painful like a constant toothache covering my upper back and neck. But it doesn't QUIT - I mean, it stops for a while. But when it starts, then it keeps going and I find out how much pain that I'm in because I'm screaming at somebody. (This is NOT one of the chapters in "How To Win Friends And Influence People").

But my neck is out because I was skiing, and that is a wonderful thing.

So - what I hope to achieve from this challenge is to (funny - my fingers automatically typed "get my neck fixed") put some effort into looking for the blossoms in the thorns, rather than finding the thorns between the blossoms - being grateful that I hurt my neck skiing, rather than being angry that my neck hurts - saying how glad I am that Kim and Lisa get to go up to ski limitless bottomless powder this weekend at Sunrise, rather than focusing on how I don't get to do that - indeed, being grateful that somebody actually asked me to come and lead a spiritual retreat, rather than on focusing on what I can't do because I'm leading that retreat (when I was laying in a pool of my own puke, drunk and friendless, in a ditch, nobody asked me to lead any spiritual retreats).

So that's why I'm doing this.

Excuse me - gotta go put the furniture in a boat. New River is still rising.