This month has started off very strange, which is hard to achieve during an already tumultuous year.
Anyway this is the month of "voluntary" layoffs, ongoing health crises, wildfires in CA and political shake-ups.
In the spirit of positive thinking and gratitude I do want to note a few things:
1. When you get your fresh air taken away, you have a renewed appreciation for it when AQI returns to normal. We rejoiced yesterday when for the second or third time in the last month we were able to get back to "green" air quality after being forced to stay indoors for days due to the smoke from the CA wildfires. It was pure joy to see blue skies, the greenery around us and to enjoy breathing fresh air and be outdoors again.
2. I have now been dairy free for a whole year! I think I started on September 30th or around that week, and it's now been a year of it. I enjoy my dairy-free-ness immensely - the energy, the lack of bloatedness, being less prone to seasonal allergies, feeling happy for doing my share for the environment and animal welfare, and overall feeling good. I really don't know why our diets were so dairy-heavy to begin with. I do want to be mindful of the almond milk I consume as well - it takes a lot of water to grow almonds. But I've made huge strides in my environmental consciousness and I'm grateful to have the awareness and means to do so (our local Whole Foods carries a variety of dairy-free alternatives and delivers as well).
3. The job situation. After years and years of breaking my head about it, it has been so freeing to realize that I must move on from where I am. There's been a bit of comfort-zone complacency, fear of the unknown, feeling under-qualified and Stockholm syndrome keeping me where I am. It's not been all bad though - I've had some pretty great opportunities, support from surprising corners, a growing network, and gained a lot of knowledge. Also, even though I really wanted to change jobs earlier, the timing wasn't quite right to do so (both logistically and practically, not making excuses), so here I am, now embarking on this next step.
4. I started Rhonda Bryne's gratitude practice from "The Magic" based on a blog where I read about it a few years back. I've been doing some form of gratitude and imagining positive outcomes (very guardedly however), but this book makes you consciously do it for 28 days. I'm now at Day 26. It's a good practice to follow in general and I'm surprised at how appreciation for things around me now comes naturally. Today, my heart was full when I saw blue skies, beautiful flowers and greenery while on my run.
5. Fitness - This year is the first year I've sort of managed to do some sort of exercise all year long. This is significant for me because for most of 2018 I was on bedrest. I exericsed on and off in 2019. This year, I've done yoga, walks, swimming and some hikes. Now that the pool is closed for the season, I'd like to start running. I still consider myself a beginner so I'm starting with Couch to 5K again - today was week 1 day 1!
6. Kids are learning a lot. Toddler's now talking quite a bit and proving to be quite advanced in his learning. My daughter is learning her letters and writing and he can now recognize all the alphabets and count as well as her. Daughter is also doing great and learning so much. Makes us really proud, and grateful for it all.
7. We're really grateful we are able to work from home and that we've been able to do so all along. It's actually been hugely productive for me professionally and I've achieved a lot in terms of projects, milestones and learning. I hope to be able to continue this.
With that I'll end with a huge feeling of gratitude for all we have, support systems and the workings of many things in the background to enable us to have what we do.
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