What if, when you woke up tomorrow, you had only those things you had remembered to be grateful for today?

Note:  This is list is very specific to me and my situation, and is meant to be my example (and my reminder) only.  I’m well aware that I’m a highly privileged person, in AA and in life.

1. AA
2. AA literature, so much move available now than 30 years ago
3. AA meetings that are plentiful and diverse
4. Airplanes that are safe, accessible and affordable
5. Anesthesia
6. Animal shelters and the people who support them
7. Antibiotics
8. Antihistamines
9. Antiques and heirlooms
10. Art
11. Artists
12. Artificial body parts (my tooth, her knee)
13. Artificial Sweeteners
14. Authors who take the time to do the writing I can read
15. Auto mechanics who are honest
16. Babies
17. Bandaids
18. Beaches to visit, and as part of my landscape growing up
19. Bed
20. Bible
21. Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous)
22. Big dogs I am brave enough to walk.
23. Birthplace of Bill W and the people who preserve it for me to visit.
24. Blogs to read from the comfort of my home
25. Boats
26. Bones for the dog
27. Books on CD for the car ride
28. Books to own and borrow without censorship
29. Calculators
30. Candles
31. Candy
32. Car
33. Car insurance
34. Caregivers
35. Cat food
36. Cat litter (was there life before cat litter?)
37. Cell phones that help me contact people who are not in one place
38. Change
39. Charities that enable me to help people from right here at home
40. Cheese
41. Chemotherapy
42. Children (adult children)
43. (That my) Children have not been endangered by my alcoholism, that they only know me sober.
44. Chocolate
45. Christmas – although I have huge difficulties with Christianity, it is nice to contemplate this person that was Jesus and the ways in which he changed the world for good.
46. Church bells I can hear from my house twice a day when I’m home.
47. Church that is diverse, accepting and traditional
48. Cities that are safe and interesting
49. Clergy
50. Clouds
51. Coffee
52. Computers at home and work and many other places
53. Cook books
54. Cousins (as an only child, they’ve meant a lot to me)
55. Crocheting and a crochet teacher
56. Democracy and elections
57. Dental hygienists (I don’t know what they make, but it can’t be enough)
58. Dental implants
59. Dentists
60. Dialysis
61. Digital cameras
62. Doctors who care about what they are doing, and who think about what they are doing.
63. Dog parks
64. Dog sighs
65. Dogs
66. Donations of time, money and material things people give to others who need them, to the world and environment.
67. Drivers who drive people who are unable to drive
68. Drivers who take others to AA meetings
69. Ebay
70. Electricity
71. Electronic books (so handy!)
72. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others who devoted their lives to equal rights for women.
73. Employment in a safe, comfortable place – in a job that lets me serve others
74. Employment of my wife, son and daughter – in safe, comfortable places in work they enjoy doing
75. English as my first language – I’m grateful that I can speak English and that the places it is spoken and understood are so vast and varied and that I didn’t have to try to learn it as a second language.
76. Eye doctors
77. Eye glass designers, and technicians who help me find some
78. Eyeglasses
79. Eyesight that is good and easily corrected to perfect
80. Faith
81. Family
82. Fire
83. Fire fighters
84. Five senses – touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing
85. (anti) Flea treatments – my life before them was often infested
86. Food that is affordable, plentiful, safe and interesting
87. Foster critters and the people who foster them
88. Freedom of the press
89. Friends
90. Funerals, a chance to say goodbye and be present and possibly supportive of other survivors
91. Gay – being openly, safely gay
92. Glasses that correct eyesight
93. God’s Grace that gives me good things I don’t deserve
94. GPS
95. Graduations – the ones I’ve achieved, and the ones my loved ones have achieved
96. Grandparents, especially my mother’s parents, who helped raise me
97. Gratitude and the ability to appreciate things
98. Hair straighteners – I wish they had had these when I was young, although maybe a lack of straight hair taught me acceptance.  But I love it now!
99. Hawaii
100. Health insurance
101. Heating pads
102. Hillary Clinton and the historic campaign
103. History and the people who recorded and preserved it
104. Holidays
105. Home remedies and the wisdom of the ages
106. House that I love
107. Imagination
108. Intelligence
109. Kittens
110. Libraries
111. Lifeguards
112. Love
113. Mammography
114. Medical attention that is some of the best in the world
115. Medical insurance that is excellent
116. Medications that are plentiful and affordable
117. Menopause (especially that I’ve lived this long)
118. Message boards (internet message boards)
119. Mobility and the ability to get from place to place
120. Mouse traps
121. Movies
122. Music
123. My mother
124. Nail polish
125. National parks (protected wild spaces)
126. Nature
127. Neighbors
128. Netflix – so much info, so close at hand
129. Neti pot
130. Newcomers who make us remember what we’re here for, what is was like, and what we don’t want to return to
131. Non-violence, the attitude my parents raised me with
132. Novocaine
133. Obama – love him, and that I got to see this and participate
134. Ocean – seen from Hawaii, so beautiful, clean (looking) and warm, and fierce
135. Oldtimers who don’t drink but keep coming to meetings
136. Online communities
137. Paid holidays, vacations and sick leave
138. Pain killers, and a healthy fear of them
139. Pain relievers – Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen and aspirin
140. Pajamas
141. Parents of people with disabilities, who show me by their example
142. Parks
143. Partners (in life, in work)
144. Patience (my own, and that which is shown to me)
145. Peace
146. People of my prayer list
147. People who back me up
148. Pepsi
149. Pets – current, past and future
150. Pet food
151. Pet sitters
152. Photographs, especially those I’ve scanned and “backed up”
153. Plants – to eat and grow for the yard, for the dog
154. Poetry and poets
155. Police
156. Problems and difficulties that make me think and make me grow and (sometimes) enable me to help others
157. Puppies
158. Rain (every living thing needs water)
159. Rainbows (are cheerful, no matter what)
160. Reading – the physical and mental ability, and the desire and love
161. Recycling, often made easy (curbside pick up)
162. Relapsers who make it back
163. Religion – freedom of and from
164. Reporters, journalists and writers who go where I can’t or don’t want to
165. Restaurants, the people who work them, the money to pay for them, and people to go with
166. Road crews taking risks in the snow and ice
167. Roads that are paved, plowed, salted and somewhat safe
168. Safety – the relative safety of my environment, always
169. Salt to melt the ice (I try to use it very sparingly, but sometimes it saves my neck)
170. Scanner to digitize my old pictures
171. School – good schools, for me and for my kids
172. Seasons
173. Second (third, fourth, fifth) chances
174. Serenity
175. Shopping over the computer.  I still hate shopping, but at least I can do it in my pajamas.
176. Siblings – that my daughter has a brother and my son has a sister – that they enjoy each other and spend time together willingly
177. Smoking – the ability to quit
178. Snow – beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
179. Snow tires
180. Soap
181. Sobriety
182. Sonograms and sonogram technicians
183. Spell check
184. Spring
185. Steroids for the itchy dog
186. Stores – nearby, and well stocked with everything I need or want
187. Sun and sunlight
188. Taxes that pay for things we need
189. Teachers
190. Television
191. Text messages that let me avoid talking to people
192. Thanksgiving (a day for gratitude)
193. Therapy and therapists
194. Time
195. Toothbrushes and toothpaste
196. Town
197. Transportation that is safe and available for going places near and far
198. Tweezers
199. Twelve and Twelve (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
200. Two pregnancies, two children
201. Vaccines
202. Ventilators (respiratory)
203. Veterinarians
204. Video, digital, and film recordings of so many things from the past.
205. Water that is clean, safe and plentiful, and hot!
206. Weather forecasts.  Although they can be wrong and wacky, I imagine a time when people had no idea what was coming, or when it would end.
207. Weather that is safe and varied and not too extreme
208. Wife
209. Wireless internet
210. Work partner Irene who covers for me when I need her to and who has been with me for almost 20 years
211. Workers – people who I work with who try hard and mean it
212. Writers who write things for me to read
213. Yarn that is affordable, plentiful and interesting