2019 gratitude list

A recent Calm meditation session I did talked about practicing gratitude as an aid to better mental and physical health. In for a penny and all that.

These are the things I'm grateful for - NB I started writing this before the end of last year but REAL LIFE.

1. The two women I live with

Mrs D and Little Ms D. The very best people.

Not only is everything I do impossible without them, but there would really be no point.

2. Family

We have the most amazing family around us. They support and care and do a lot of the heavy lifting.

I like to think they get something out of it too, something back from us. But we know how lucky we are.

3. Friends

I'm also grateful for the amazing friends we have, not just for me but Mrs and Little Ms D too. In a way which I never saw coming we seem to have got a three for the price of one deal, in that the core group is shared on each level between us.

I've been particularly lucky that my friends have been in my circle since my good old days playing music.

We get together regularly, talk shit about music, drink. It sounds wonderfully ordinary but again I know how lucky I am.

In 2019 they pushed me around to gigs, got angry on my behalf when venues were inaccessible (Bodega Nottingham, I'm looking at you), and have even picked me up to drive me to the pub when the weather was particularly crappy (then taking the car back home before walking back to the pub).

Legends.

4. Interventionists

I'm not going to bang on about my Podcast Editing business *ahem*. But in June of last year I had a Zoom conference with Kathy from FUMS and Jackie Z (Queen of GSD).

Kathy I met at HUConnexion in Philadelphia in 2018. I just happened to arrive late enough that the only space left was next to her! Isn't it crazy how things work out?

Jackie has been a virtual presence in my life since... well, I genuinely don't know. I do know that her old MS blog (sadly defunct) changed the way I felt about my diagnosis. To say it saved my life seems a bit too dramatic. But it's somewhere along that line. We've been chatting online ever since, through good and bad times. And the Zoom call was the first time we'd ever spoken.

I've been describing that call as a "career intervention" ever since. Two forceful Yanks telling me that podcast editing might be the career direction I didn't know I was looking for.

By the end of our chat I had a web address and a set of tasks to carry out. Within a few days I had a logo and a website, designed, built and hosted by Jackie.

Ever since then they've been promoting me and sending clients my way. To say that I'm grateful for these two amazing women is one of the understatements of the millennium.

5. Readers

No one comments on blogs anymore. But I know that there are some people out there reading this stuff. And not just this post I wrote about the accessibility of Center Parcs way back when (still the most visited page on here).

Towards the end of last year IASB was even picked as one of The Top 10 MS Blogs to Follow in 2020 by Everyday Health website.

I know it's stuff really doesn't matter but it was really nice to receive this. Especially because they'd obviously gone fairly deep with their chosen episodes. Thanks.

--

So these are the things which I still feel grateful for. And I do feel better when I acknowledge them.

[SPOILER ALERT]

I have a horrible feeling that I'm going to need them this year!