Today at Thrive Upstate we had something that might be called a gratefulness gathering. There was a little tree on the wall, and each of us had to write something we were grateful for on leaves of paper. “Friends” was the word I wrote. A friend put it on the tree.

I was in a play about cars this past Tuesday at Thrive Upstate. I played Chris the Cadillac.

My mind might shift.

Every time I studied a war in school I wondered how people could repeatedly do something that obviously had to be traumatizing.

My niece Amelia had COVID, but she’s better. I never had it, and let’s hope I don’t because my body has weird reactions when I’m sick. The good news is that for at least a year and a half they haven’t been weird enough to send me back to the hospital.

Something weird happened to my hand. Two of my fingers wouldn’t separate for a couple of days. I was at the lake house when it happened. I said that’s a weird part of getting older. I remember talking, so it wasn’t a stroke.

I’m on a boat in this photo. The lake’s called Hartwell.

I think there’s something about me that nobody else on this website knows about yet. Well, all of you will now. Maybe even Br. David will get the word that I’m his religious brother. I became a Benedictine oblate in 1994. My mom saw that. She was also one. We’re single or married men and women who live in the world while being affiliated with a monastery or convent. I was only 22.

I savor every day by breathing.

Brother David Steindl-Rast. “Gratefulness rocks!”

Grace is knowing God made you so you can praise Him.

Besides God, other people around me.

I just stay calm and do whatever I need to do.

I probably have more limitations than most people, but I can celebrate them through the arts.

It’s one without any problems. I believe that was God’s original intention for Earth.

Peace and deep thinking.

I find out that it’s not so bad. It might even be educational.

Every time I have a birthday I turn that age for the first time.

It just helps me see that not everything is as it seems. When you have a bad day, remember that it’s only your mind that makes it seem bad. All of your days are really good because you’re alive,

Fine. I never stop thinking deep thoughts. If there were an ocean that was”t filled with water, it could be filled with my thoughts instead. The wildlife might look a little odd, though,, because I think about odd stuff like the nature of reality. Ancient philosophers even wrote about only form being real. I’m not sure I believe that although it seems to explain what Jim Carrey means when he says we’re all just tetrahedrons floating around.