AOM: 30 Days... Day 5 – Gratitude

Today's assignment from The Art of Manliness is to Cultivate Your Gratitude. I can dig it...

Here is the related link and an excerpt:

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/04/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-5-cultivate-your-gratitude/

Some people think if they had more stuff or better luck, then they would magically have more gratitude. But the number of your material possessions or relationships will have no effect on your attitude. Once you got those things, you’d simply start thinking about new things you wanted. Gratitude is an attitude that can be cultivated in whatsoever circumstances you find yourself in. It’s not about good things happening to you, it’s about finding new layers of wonderfulness in the things that you have right now.

Part 1: Cultivate Your Personal Gratitude

It’s time to take stock of all the good things in life that we have to be thankful for. So task #1 is to make a list of 10 things that you’re grateful for.

So task #2 is to give 3 thank you’s to 3 different people today. These have to be specific thank yous. I’m not talking about the waiter bringing your soup and you saying, “thank you,” in return, although you could at the end of the meal say, “I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for the extraordinary service you gave tonight.” It’s okay to thank people just for doing their job well. Yeah, they’re just doing their job, but I think we all know plenty of people who can’t even rise to that level, and I’m personally grateful when people have enough integrity to do so.

That said, here are my thank you's:

1. I want to thank every single person that has taken the time to read this blog. Even if they stumbled upon it by accident, after doing some Google search for some random image, or a long lost friend from college, a new friend, or an old lover... Thank you to everyone that has invested even 5 seconds in reading my often rambling thoughts about this funny little life of mine.

I started this blog mid-September of 2009, and then installed a stat counting system two weeks after that. I have received nearly 700 hits on this website in the month that I have had the counter system in place. Baffling numbers to me...

So, thank you to those of you who check back in daily to read my latest posts, and to those who maybe have only glanced at it briefly. More specifically, a deeper thanks to those of whom not only read my words, but then contacted me afterwards to let me know what my offerings brought up in your mind's eye. Some people have told me how much they can relate to my fumbling around the subject of love, even though they themselves are not trans. While others suggested related topics from a new perspective that I hadn't formerly thought of yet. All of it feeds me, and not just my narcissism. I have learned so much from these exchanges that others have shared with me. I feel very grateful to have these thoughtful people in my life nourishing me in the ways that they do.

2. I would like to thank my closest friends, those of whom I talk to on almost a daily basis. Those of you who have gotten me through the toughest points, and have forgiven me my missteps and lack of grace when I have gotten scared. Thanks for seeing me through, guys...

3. I want to thank my family and friends for accepting and even celebrating my 'new' life with me. Thank you to everyone who calls me "Will," and all that it represents. I feel very lucky to have the support and acceptance I have been given in this trans life of mine.

4. Thank you to all of the medical doctors, nurses, and medical staffers that have made this transition possible. Not only my gender transition, but the path to a more stable, healthy, heart-full life. Thank you all!

5. Thanks to all of my trans and queer trailblazers who have been forging the way so the rest of us can live a life with more security, safety, and dignity. I hope to join your ranks, and give back all that you have given to me.

6. Thank you to all of the women who have been brave enough to love me, and embark on a relationship that might not have fit with your romantic trajectory. I have been so loved, and have learned so much about the craft of loving because of your generosity and kind spirits. (And by "spirits," I don't mean booze...) Despite my deeply rooted fears that I may be unlovable, you have proven me wrong. I have been incredibly loved, and I choose to see the power of that, rather than focus on the lack of a romantic partner right now.

Thank you everyone! (Funny that there is a cross pollenation between Oprah's "Gratitude Journal" and The Art of Manliness's "Cultivate Your Gratitude" assignment. I feel like I need to go back to yesterday's post about increasing my testosterone... Oh, I am grateful that I can now bench 350 lbs. Ha!)