I am grateful for the ability to:
Hear. Hearing is one of the five senses that I am indeed grateful for. It is not only to use my ears to gather incoming information but to filter the content. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day noise that surrounds us, the traffic zooming by, the honking horns and screeching brakes. The noise of construction and sirens and screaming. It is also the ability to hear the sweet music of the birds singing, the soothing whisper of a lover, the melodic notes that come from the stereo of the London Philharmonic Orchestra or the sound of my children singing or laughing. It is also the ability to hear trouble before it gets to close, the sound of footfalls behind you, the breathing of someone who doesn't belong, the sound of someone hiding. The ability to hear also prompts you to take action because what you filter sounds like someone is in need behind the locked door, in the tub, the sound of a fall, the need for a rescue.
Touch. From the days of Knights, a hand extended to another is at it’s root a gesture of safety; it means that I hold no weapon and I mean you no harm. A hug is a gesture of comfort at a funeral or happiness to see someone again or the desire to just hold another person close to you. Skin touching skin can have an electric charge that can seemingly recharge the battery of the persons involved. The ability to run your hand over the flesh of your lover and feel the wispy, barely detectible hairs rub ever so lightly against your palm. The passionate lovers embrace that joins two as one. The power of holding a frightened child in your arms and reassure them that all is well and that they are truly safe. The feel of perfect fit of my Kimber .45 as the web of my hand closes around the masterfully detailed, cold steel of the grip safety. The balance of a good kitchen knife in your hand as you peel an apple. The pleasure of nice fresh clean socks as they slip onto your feet.
Taste. The pure enjoyment of the celebration of flavor as it dances over the palate containing the taste buds inside of your mouth can be exquisite. Wether it is the taste of an ice cold Coke on a hot summer day or the guilty pleasure of the opulence of Thanksgiving dinner, the commingling of turkey and potatoes and gravy chased down with stuffing from inside of the bird, simple pleasure. The taste of your lovers throat or the salt in the tear that you kiss away. The sweetness of white chocolate or the tanginess of cinnamon bears it can all be savored. The taste buds can be overwhelmed with the discovery of a new flavor like orange or betrayed by the memory of another like blood. The taste of a long, deep kiss, the flavor will be recorded.
Sight. To see the world in front of you. The darkness of night, the promise of the sun rising in the East. The vibrance of the color spectrum, reds and yellows and blues and greens. To watch people as they move, erotic and sensual, slow and dumpy, fast and frantic all at the same time from different directions. I love to watch people at the mall as they dart from store to store, deep in thought or conversations. Dragging along husbands or children or parents as they go. The beauty of the female body in all of it’s different shapes and sizes. The profound greatness in driving over the crest of a mountain to see the sprawling valley below. The way that the forest morphs from scrub to aspen to pine as you gain altitude, the fire of color in autumn. The ability to see a smile start, spread and maximize. To tell a person about a tragedy and watch others try to comfort, the events of our lives and the people that we come into contact with however briefly.
Smell. The sense that betrays me the most, my fickle sense of smell. The ability to complete the picture of senses by associating a smell to the flavor, texture, vision and sound of the moment. The smell of blood also produces a flavor of blood while the smell of La Frontera food produces saliva as my mouth starts to imagine the flavor of chili verde. The distinct smell of your intimate partner, and the smell of gunpowder in the air. The smell of pine as you enter into the mountains, the smell of scented pine cones at Christmas. The smell of burning brakes or spelt gasoline. The smell of a bakery or fast food establishment. Try to remember the times that you were sick and eating had no flavor, no matter what you ate. Smell indeed completes the picture the other senses create.
Feel. This is different from touch, feeling is the ability to experience. Empathy, compassion, fear, forlorn. When I listen to music and I close my eyes and let the music transport me to another place, that is feeling. When you hear the tragic story another has to tell and you tear up because you have such a strong physical reaction to the tale. When you laugh so hard that tears stream down your face. When you plunge into such a low depression because you miss someones presence so badly.; That is feeling and I am so thankful for it.
Inquire. Question everything! Information is power and there are wars fought for it. Why are we doing this? Why do you want me to do this? This doesn't sound like the right thing to do, why are you telling me to do it? What is over there? What is behind that door, why, why, why? I love to question, we are designed to question. As a group we have been fed so much bad information for so long it is hard to believe anything so it is in our best interest to ask why or what or how. The growth that a team obtains by asking and then being told the reason. The road to truth and belief is paved with questions.
Learn. To be in constant betterment of ourselves should be our goal. Every day we are given a new opportunity to learn at least one thing, we should look for that chance and seize it as we would the very breath we take. By expanding our knowledge we expand the ability that we have to teach another, to offer a different point of view, to contribute. When we find ourselves thinking that we have learned all that we can about a subject, it is truly time to find another subject. We have either set our goals too low or we have really over inflated the view we have upon ourself. When we allow ourselves to become stagnant, we allow ourselves to be bitter and useless. I am grateful for books, some I read as purely guilty pleasure.
Contribute. What a great opportunity that we have to contribute. There is no time like now with a greater need for people to contribute to society. We have so many ill’s that burden society today. We can get involved in the community by volunteering through church groups, community outreach, school, work projects. Clean out your stuff and donate what you don’t need or use to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or Desert Industries. Put your extra change in the homeless outreach meters downtown or someones expired parking meter. We can all do a little more to make things better around us.
Mourn. Cry, let things out so that they don't fester like a sickness. Mourn as a group or do it by yourself. I have found that I do the most healthy mourning while I sleep. The lest healthy way I do it is by eating. I am so hopeful that we as a society will continue to move away from telling our children not to cry. Let’s let it out!
Celebrate. I am so grateful for the ability to celebrate all of the wonderfulness of my life! I celebrate the nation that I live in that allows me so many freedoms. I celebrate the state that I live in with all of it’s unique diversity and oddness. So many holidays and monumental days, weddings, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, firsts and the list goes on. Everyday that we find ourselves upright is a day that we can celebrate. I also celebrate new discoveries. I marvel at what my cell phone can do, who would ever had imagined the incredibleness of today’s hand held, micro computer that also makes phone calls?
Love. The depth that I love is unfathomable, it is deeper then that of my ability to understand it. Love can drive you to do things from the dumb and unexplained to heroic and magical. Love of country, of family, of anything or anyone you value more than your own life. A word that I reserve for only the most special of ideas and one that I hear undercut in it’s everyday us.
In setting down to reflect on the things that I am grateful for I realize that It is not the items in life, the possessions that I crave, it is the flavor of life that I am the most grateful for. The loss of even one of my senses would be terrible. As things are now I have to wear corrective lenses so that I can see life and my hearing has been damaged by to many explosions and by gunfire therefore I now take every precaution to preserve what is left of them. From the instant that I awake in the comfort of my dark bedroom and feel the smooth cotton sheets and the cool air to the moment I slip back into bed at the end of another adventure, I can say that I am truly grateful.
You are a wonderful Man! :-)
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