The King County Library System - KCLS

Early childhood memories include reading every book on Greek, Roman and Norse religion in my elementary school when I was by 4th grade and getting books from the Auburn public library. The Auburn Public Library was incorporated into the King County Library system decades ago. 

 I have always loved reading throughout my life. I read books once and put them down until I have forgotten most of the book. If they are still around, I will read the ones I like again. My book collection has always been small-ish. Books are expensive, heavy and take up space when accumulating a collection.

 My preferred book source is the library. There is a large central library a mile away and an excellent small satellite library at my favorite local mall. I can order books online and pick them up at the library when my turn comes up. For new popular books, the wait can be months. That is not a problem for me. There are 500,000 other books to read at the library while waiting for reserved books. 

 While looking for books on gratitude, the pickings were slim at the library. The KCLS has access to two online libraries featuring both audio and text ebooks. After some modest difficulty, I have downloaded audio ebooks to my PC. I have worked my way through 2.5 books on gratitude. One book was not for me due to writing and the narrator. The other two are good books and with good narration. 

 Naturally once I found this gold mine of easily accessed books, I started listening to audio books. While writing this post, I am listening to The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story. The books is about deadly Smallpox infections. 

 Much of last year, I anticipated buying an Android version of an iPad. My timeline was a bit optimistic for when a deluge of tablets will hit the stores. My original wish was for an e-reader like a Kindle. Feature creep has expanded the scope of my wish-list to more nearly seeking a miniaturized laptop sans keyboard. 

 My initial desire for an e-reader was to turn ebooks into large print books so I could read without my glasses. Now it will be more like 24/7 access to the internet and books. I have free access to thousands of sci-fi ebooks for free. When I get my ereader, it will be the biggest reading fest in my life! Guess I know what I am getting for my birthday! 

 We enjoy a gloriously rich world of literature from any PC on the web that would have shamed the fabled Library of Alexandria. For all that, I am grateful, and I love it.

Modern medications

I take 6 prescription medications for a total of 13 pills every day.  My workmen's compensation insurance pays 100% of the cost of medication.  I phone in a refill and pick it up the next day with a signature at my local Rite-Aid.  

Rite-Aid actually has fantastic customer service for a medical products vendor.  It is not that the pharmacists are chatty-friendly, they just get things done in an extremely efficient way.  One short call or vmail to order 6 meds and then give them a two days to refill expired prescriptions with my doctor and to a day to get whatever meds that they might be short of from a supply warehouse.

I would love to go every 90 days, but my WC insurance only pays for 30 days at a time. Still the system works very well for me.  I have been getting meds at the same Rite-Aid for eleven years.  Thank you Rite-Aid people for your awesome consumer friendly customer service.

I am prone to bladder and skin infections (cellulitus).  I take a generic sulfa drug antibiotic called Bactrim to keep the cellulitis in check.  The infection starts in my toes and works its way up my leg.  The symptoms are hot red skin, fever/chills and phantom pain spasms. 

When I first got cellulitis and did not know what it was, my fear of an unknown health problem freaked-me out with a good sized sense of fear and abandonment.  The first three times I got cellulitis, I checked into the ER and was put on inpatient IV anti-biotics for a 2+ days.

Taking the Bactrim every day counts down on the cellulitis frequency to slow flare-ups every year or two.  My experience with cellulitis has lead to a much lower fear level. 

This evening I was feeling phantom pain and light fever/chills.  I took one fair stronger penicillin-type anti-biotic called Cipro and went to bed.  A couple hours sleep, more fever/chills and now I feel better.  Not okay, but a tolerable level of discomfort.  I will finish this post, take another Cipro and go back to bed.

That is incredibly more preferable that going to the ER and staying in the hospital for 3 days. 

Since I am not bleeding to death or likely to die in the next few minutes, I am about the last person treated in the ER—which means I have to wait for hours while is considerably discomfort.  I understand the triage theory and would want to be treated ASAP if I was bleeding out in the ER, but it still sucks to have to wait for help.

Coumadin is a anti-coagulant that I take to prevent more blood clots in the future.  I have had a blood clot in my left thigh for almost 30 years.  Aspirin is also a moderate anti-coagulant.  Thus, I can't take aspirin for minor pain.   If things get really painful, I could take a narcotic pain reliever such as Vicodin.  That knocks the pain down considerably.   There is comfort in knowing that I could treat the pain if it gets worse.  I did not take Vicodin tonight.

I wrote more, but MS Word crashed and lost a couple of paragraphs.  Thank god I only lost a couple of paragraphs.  I love modern technology!

PS: At 11 PM on the 26th, I am almost back to feeling normal.  I was a little fried from the ride.
PPS:  I know I am building a more resistant bug with my antibiotic (ab) use.  It works for me now.

Modern medications

 

I take 6 prescription medications for a total of 11 pills every day. My workmen's compensation insurance pays 100% of the cost of medication. I phone in a refill and pick it up the next day with a signature at my local Rite-Aid.

Rite-Aid actually has fantastic customer service for a medical products vendor. It is not that the pharmacists are chatty-friendly, they just get things done in an extremely efficient way. One short call or vmail to order 6 meds and then give them a two days to refill expired prescriptions with my doctor and to a day to get whatever meds that they might be short of from a supply warehouse.

I would love to go every 90 days, but my WC insurance only pays for 30 days at a time. Still the system works very well for me. I have been getting meds at the same Rite-Aid for eleven years. Thank you Rite-Aid people for your awesome consumer friendly customer service.

I am prone to bladder and skin infections (cellulitus). I take a generic sulfa drug antibiotic called Bactrim to keep the cellulitis in check. The infection starts in my toes and works its way up my leg. The symptoms are hot red skin, fever/chills and phantom pain spasms.

When I first got cellulitis and did not know what it was. My fear of an unknown health problem freaked-me out with a good sized sense of fear and abandonment. The first three times I got cellulitis, I checked into the ER and was put on inpatient IV anti-biotics for a 2+ days.

Taking the Bactrim every day counts down on the cellulitis frequency to slow flare-ups every year or two. My experience with cellulitis has lead to a much lower fear level.

This evening I was feeling phantom pain and light fever/chills. I took one fair stronger penicillin-type anti-biotic called Cipro and went to bed. A couple hours sleep, more fever/chills and now I feel better. Not okay, but a tolerable level of discomfort. I will finish this post, take another Cipro and go back to bed.

That is incredibly more preferable that going to the ER and staying in the hospital for 3 days.

Since I am not bleeding to death or likely to die in the next few minutes, I am about the last person treated in the ER—which means I have to wait for hours while is considerably discomfort. I understand the triage theory and would want to be treated ASAP if I was bleeding out in the ER, but it still sucks to have to wait for help.

Coumadin is a anti-coagulant that I take to prevent more blood clots in the future. I have had a blood clots in my left thigh for almost 30 years. Aspirin is also a moderate anti-coagulant. Thus, I can't take aspirin for minor pain. If things get really painful, I could take a narcotic pain reliever such as Vicodin. That knocks the pain down considerably. There is comfort in knowing that I could treat the pain if it gets worse. I did not take Vicodin tonight.

If it was not for modern medicine and medications, I would have died decades ago. YAY modern medication.

The UW Medical Center was the #2 rated spinal cord injury (SCI) rehab facility in the US. I am grateful that it is only a 20 minute drive away with good parking in my secret spot. One way I show my gratitude is by participating in SCI research projects. My gratitude study is a secondary effect of one of the research projects I participated in. Giving back has worked well for me in the quality of my medical care.

 

 

 

My cats

 

I had a good day on Monday. Gave Gigi a ride to the airport, pizza for lunch with Dan, nice meeting with my sponsor, a meeting at a treatment center and a pleasant phone conversation with Tracy.

Gigi's birthday is at the end of January and mine is on March 5th. We have taken to celebrating our birthdays with each for weeks and months at a time. I got off the first round today with the ride to the airport and by giving her a book on Great Places to Kiss in the Puget Sound area. That works really well teaching me how to have several good days instead of getting hung up on having a 'perfect' day.

When I was having a 'perfect' time, I would get hung up on future tripping in wanting the moment to last forever instead of simply enjoying the moment. That would immediately block a given moment from being really good since I was no longer in the moment. I have made tremendous progress with that and am grateful to have Gigi for a really good friend in my life.

While trying to decide what to write about for this post, I looked around my living room. My cats came up as a worthy subject of gratitude. I have two cats named Jenny and (June) Bug. We have been together for almost 5 years. They are both short-haired spayed females. They are friendly loving cats that will come out and say 'hi' when I have guests over—as opposed to hiding in the bedroom. It makes me look like I am a really good pet owner to have friendly cats that are not scaredy cats afraid of people. The reality is they are cats, I really had little to do with their somewhat outgoing cat personalities. I got lucky in my pet picks when I got them.

Jenny is a bit of a talker. Bug is not a talker, but has a motor when it comes to purring. Bug will ride in my lap when I am rolling around my apartment in my wheelchair. Both of them are low maintenance kitties that have that cat way of being in the same room as me while acting as if they were completely unaware of my presence.

I love my cats and am grateful that they are so friendly, well-behaved and healthy.

 

 

Grateful for a homegroup…

After several days of spending time home alone, I made it to a meeting today.  My 'home group' meets on Sunday nights at a local church.  We have a nice room with plenty of parking, nice bathrooms and a good size kitchen area in a great location in downtown Bellevue.

I am grateful for meetings in general and for my home group in particular.  It is a one hour meeting focused on studying the 12 steps in order 1-12, 1-12 and so on.  I have been going there for 6 years and so have been through the steps with the group 25 times.   While I like arcane topics as much as the next ADD philosopher, it is very good to remind myself what the program is about and how it works.  We recently started studying a tradition one night each month.

Things I like about the others in my home group is how we do a good job of keeping our sharing short so that usually everybody can share, that out of the 15+ regular attendees a dozen of us have been going to that meeting for 5-8 years.   That has the effect of making it 'our' meeting.  We don't talk about it much, but it is an extremely service oriented meeting well represented at the District level and with lots of interaction between members on other days.  The ladies have a veritable hiking club.  The guys have a high level of cross-pollinated sponsorship.  The average length of recovery is well into double-digits.

I get a sense of safety, security and love when I am at that meeting.  I know I won't have to listen to someone blather on about their drunkalog due to how focused we are on our singleness of purpose.  We are there to work a program of recovery to the best of our ability.  I love the simplicity of that concept.  Left to my own best thinking, it would be more complex and completely unworkable.  It is good to have people much smarter than me teach me by example how to simplify  and live life like Thoreau.

Car Problems

My car has an electrical for the past month or two where the battery goes dead if I don't drive it every day.  I put in new battery.  That might have helped a bit, but the problem continued for another couple of weeks.  Lately, I was driving my car every day or two and was not having the dead battery problem.  This week I went three days without driving my car and the battery was dead when I went to start it today.   That sucked.

I am grateful for Ali's Auto Repair shop in Bellevue.  They have worked on my car since they opened the shop 4-5 years ago.  Ali's does good work at an honest price without trying to upsell me on unneeded repairs.  Weird electrical problems can be tough to diagnose exactly what the source of the problem is.

I am grateful that I do not have a nasty daily commute, that I do know where I will take it to get worked on and that I have the money to pay for the repairs when needed.  It was not always this way in my life.

Serenity

I have a new roommate. She is gone more than she is here. I saw her one afternoon in the last 12 days. I like the peace, tranquility and solitude of living alone. Social interactions get a lot more complicated when other people are in the room! ;)
 
I am grateful that I can afford to live alone in a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a good part of town. The location works really well for me. Almost everything I need is within a ten minute drive. When I want to go to the big city, most of Seattle is within a twenty minute drive. 

I ordered 3 more books on gratitude. One book is the most expensive not-textbook (for class) that I have ever purchased in my life. The Psychology of Gratitude was published in 2007. The new price on Amazon is $44.33, the used price is $43.98. Apparently those that bought the book really like it and don't resell it. 

I look forward to getting more gratitude. It has been a huge blessing in my life.

China's President Hu comes to DC

President Hu Jintao and President Obama at the White House 

I am grateful that we have more pragmatic and social political leaders that are willing to discuss issues in person rather than conduct a war of words from a distance. Talking is much cheaper than fighting over issues.
Since this is a blog about gratitude, I will not review a bunch of whining senators that want China to do 'fix' its monetary policy while they continue to run the US further into trillions of dollars of debt.

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."
Buddha

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
Chinese proverb

Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude.
Confucius

Five things constitute perfect virtue: gravity, magnanimity, earnestness, sincerity and kindness.
Confucius

Saying Grace

"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink." — G. K. Chesterton

   I started writing this early in the AM with the GKC quote. Now it is late in the evening and I did not get any further. I want to post something to be 'complete' with my journaling for the day. Fortunately for me, there is not a minimum size constraint for my gratitude blog.
   Actually, my preference is to write posts that are a few hundred words long for two reasons. One reason is to keep the posts readable and the other reason is so that I keep the journaling/blogging down to a pleasant manageable task that can be done in a timely fashion.
   Today I had lunch with Mark. We had a pleasant conversation and I gave him a ride back to his office. He is going to write a gratitude list. He carries a gratitude list in his pocket. That is a bit like me carrying a picture of me at the gym in my pocket. It is not nearly the same as working out, but it is better than nothing.
   I missed a couple of days of working out and have been back at it for the last two days. I am grateful for that. My workouts are 10-minutes on a hand-cycle. Naturally I would like them to be more robust, but that is infinitely better than doing nothing. Progress, not perfection.

Friends

 

One of the best blessings of my recovery is the quality and quantity of good friends that I have now. They are the best friend relationships that I have ever had in my life—by far and away. I do best with a routine. Lately my routine has been a walk and a meeting with Leslee on Sundays, afternoons with Charlie on Mondays and Fridays have dinner and a meeting with Sandy.

Thanks to the progress I have made with my abandonment issues, when one of them is busy with other activities, I can easily find an alternative if I am willing to pick up the phone. For example, Sandy went away for a 4-day weekend to see family on Friday. Carol was more than willing to serve as a stand-in for dinner and a movie when I called her.

Carol and I had a great time on Friday night. Dinner was at the Café Firenze with delicious Italian food. The movie was so-so. It was the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. I think it was based on a ginned-up story for the movie instead of being based on a book by CS Lewis like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. After the movie, we went to Barnes & Noble for a little book browsing.

There might have been a book on gratitude at B&N, but I did not see find it. I did find a nice leather-bound sheaf of lined paper about 8x10 inches that would be ideal for journaling. Carol found another journaling book that had 6 prompts for topics for each day. It (apparently) was supposed to be a two-year journal when the first year was written on the outside column and the second year was written on the inside column of each page. I got it for Carol as a belated Xmas gift. She committed to sending me an email after she journaled. So far, so good. It has been two three days and she has sent me two three emails (I just checked my email to find she had emailed me 5 minutes ago that she had journaled).

Carol and I became friends years ago doing volunteer work together at Echo Glen. EG is essentially a prison for wayward minors. We stopped going out there after a year or so due to scheduling confusion on their part.

In the last five months, I have gone to EG three times for 12-step meetings with the kids in a 'recovery lodge'. I even applied to get clearance to become a regular volunteer again at EG when I went there for the third time on Saturday. It is an experience unlike any other working with the kids at EG.

As much as anything, it seems the most common offense committed by the delinquents at EG was to have been born into families that were not able to provide responsible adult supervision for their children. That lack of supervision manifests itself in a variety of crimes from drug use to car theft to assault and so on. Often the counselors and volunteers at EG are the first responsible adults the kids have met in their life.

It was a good weekend for relationships. For that, I am grateful.

Social Justice comes in many forms

Here are two great stories about the triumph of good people over bad things. The first story is from my sister who moved to Sydney, Australia several years ago. There was a massive flood in Brisbane that flooded the CBD and many residential areas. The second is about the US Parks Police Chief Teresa Chambers that was wrongfully fired by the Bush II administration for pointing that she could not hire more police without funding after 9/11.

The flood waters have receded in most of the flooded areas. The cleanup has begun.
The Queensland Premier called for volunteers to help with the cleanup. She said "If you can operate a mop or a broom, please volunteer to help". Over 22,000 people have in Brisbane.  The government organised buses to take volunteers, who are armed with buckets, brooms, and mops, to areas that are hardest hit. The TV news has shown clips of dozens of people cleaning homes, businesses, golf courses. The homeowners and shopkeepers are overwhelmed: they had not known where to start. And now to have this small army of workers, sweeping, taking out rubbish, mopping. It is incredible. Some volunteers flew in from other states to participate.
This week, photos were on the news of Haiti. It is the one-year anniversary of the disaster there. The rubble remains. Even a Catholic Church remains strewn with rubble a year on.
In Queensland, the mess will be mostly gone in a matter of weeks. Some houses will be demolished and rebuilt: those bits could take a year. But what a big difference between Queensland and Haiti. I think a big factor is that people in Australia pitch in and work to fix things. In Haiti, they wait for someone else to do it.
It is very moving to me to see the thousands of everyday Aussies, queuing up to get on the busses, sweeping footpaths and homes, raking golf courses, taking out rubbish.  If I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, I would travel there to be part of it. Amazing.


REINSTATEMENT ORDERED
After seven years, one month, and six days, Chief Chambers has had all administrative charges dismissed by the Merit Systems Protection Board, which has ordered that she be reinstated as the Chief of the United States Park Police.  Here's an excerpt from the MSPB decision:
Accordingly, we ORDER the agency to cancel the appellant's December 5, 2003 placement on administrative leave, cancel the appellant's July 10, 2004 removal, and restore her effective July 10, 2004. . . The agency must complete this action no later than 20 days after the date of this decision.
The Board also ordered "the agency to pay the appellant the correct amount of back pay, interest on back pay, and other benefits under the Office of Personnel Management's regulations, no later than 60 calendar days after the date of this decision" and has invited Chief Chambers to file a motion for attorneys' fees and related expenses.
Meetings have been scheduled to work out the logistics of transitioning Chief Chambers back to the position that was illegally taken from her.
The members of the Merit Systems Protection Board are to be commended for taking a fresh, unbiased look at this case, carefully reviewing the evidence, and seeing that justice was served.
http://www.honestchief.com/nj/index.html#twodown

For more information on government employees fighting for what is right and/or legal against the crush of the corporations, check out http://peer.org/.

 I am grateful that there are people and societies out there that take it upon themselves to do the right thing, no matter what. Chief Chambers story is one of amazing dedication, perseverance and sacrifice. If there were more like her, we would not have invaded Iraq under the pretext of non-exist WMDs. It is good that we have Teresa Chambers standing up for the rule of law.

alternative input devices...

I can also blog via my tv using a virtual keyboard one mouseclick at a time, with a mini keyboard like on a cell phone, or with a full size wifi keyboard.  It is good to have choices. Too bad none of those choices come close to using my pc keyboard.
'nuff for now
Kevin

PS: Doing some editing with my usual keyboard.  There is a reason those alternative devices are not the primary input method!

Quotes from religions on gratitude

       While it would have been great to have the WWW when I was a student, I probably would have got kicked out of school for plagarism. I am grateful that was not a problem.   It is too easy to cut-n-paste from other writers that have already made my point in far more eloquent fashion that would defy editing. Plus, I know I was the kind of student that would not simply borrow a sentence at a time, but entire pages en masse —> busted!

       Today I do have access to the web and don't have problems with Fair Use of another's web pages.  Thanks to the miracle of Google & the web, I have quotes from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and more—all with about 2 minutes worth of research.

       I was going to post definitions of gratitude.  Surprisingly, such as powerful concept has only one definition per several different dictionaries.   Gratitude definitions might be worded differently, but they all mean "a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation".  Gratitude seems to be a universal emotion across all cultures, it seems like that would lead to many definitions.  Some languages do have happiness synonymous with gratitude, but that is a different definition of happiness from ours, not a different definition of gratitude.

       My goal is to blog on gratitude 5x/week.  I am incredibly grateful for the internet which translates my writer's block time into Googling (reading) time with the net result of all of us learning a little more about gratitude.  How cool is that?

        Kevin 
        January 13, 2011

The following is from http://www.unification.net/ws/theme108.htm (gotta love that Fair Use!)

       GRATITUDE

       A sense of gratitude and indebtedness to others is an important wellspring of a generous and virtuous life.  All people can recognize that they are indebted to their parents, who gave them birth and raised them at considerable sacrifice.  But our indebtedness extends much further than that. Fundamentally, we are indebted to God our Creator and the powers of nature that nourish and sustain our life.  Then, since the food we eat travels from the soil to our dining table by passing through many hands--that cultivate, harvest, clean, package, transport, sell, and prepare it--we should recognize that we rely on the labors of many people in order to survive.  A sense of gratitude to others is thus acknowledging our interdependent existence; it is an antidote to the illusion of egoism. Such gratitude is recalled and expressed in the prayer of grace or thanks offered before meals.

       Another dimension of gratitude is directed towards those who are responsible for our education and enlightenment in the way of truth and salvation.  Gratitude towards one's teachers, and especially towards the sages and founders of religions who offered their lives to find the truth, is a proper attitude of faith.  Most of all, we should be grateful to God, who quietly has been guiding and nurturing each person toward salvation, and without whose grace the world would be plunged in darkness.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

                      Christianity.  Colossians 3.17

O you who believe!  Eat of the good things that We have provided for you, and be grateful to God, if it is Him that you worship.

                       Islam.  Qur'an 2.172

God created foods to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.  For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

                      Christianity.  1 Timothy 4.3-5

Abraham caused God's name to be mentioned by all the travelers whom he entertained.  For after they had eaten and drunk, and when they arose to bless Abraham, he said to them, "Is it of mine that you have eaten?

Surely it is of what belongs to God that you have eaten.  So praise and bless Him by whose word the world was created."

                      Judaism.  Talmud, Sota 10b

The unworthy man is ungrateful, forgetful of benefits [done to him].  This

ingratitude, this forgetfulness is congenial to mean people...  But the

worthy person is grateful and mindful of benefits done to him.  This

gratitude, this mindfulness, is congenial to the best people.

                    Buddhism.  Anguttara Nikaya i.61

One upon whom We bestow kindness

But will not express gratitude,

Is worse than a robber

Who carries away our belongings.

                      African Traditional Religions.  Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)

Be not like those who honor their gods in prosperity and curse them in

adversity.  In pleasure or pain, give thanks!

                   Judaism.  Midrash, Mekilta to Exodus 20.20

Even if you cry your heart out, hurt your eyes by constant weeping and

even if you lead the life of an ascetic till the end of the world, all

these untiring efforts of yours will not be able to make compensation for

a tithe of His good will and kindness, for His bounties and munificence

and for His mercy and charity in directing you towards the path of truth

and religion.

                    Islam (Shiite).  Nahjul Balagha, Khutba 57

It is God who has made the night for you, that you may rest therein, and

the day, as that which helps you to see.  Verily God is full of grace and

bounty to men, yet most men give no thanks.

It is God who has made for you the earth as a resting place, and the sky

as a canopy, and has given you shape--and made your shapes beautiful--
and has provided for you sustenance of things pure and good; such is
God, your Lord. So glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds!

                     Islam.  Qur'an 40.61, 64

O my Father, Great Elder,

I have no words to thank you,

But with your deep wisdom

I am sure that you can see

How I value your glorious gifts.

O my Father, when I look upon your greatness,

I am confounded with awe.

O Great Elder,

Ruler of all things earthly and heavenly,

I am your warrior,

Ready to act in accordance with your will.

                African Traditional Religions.  Kikuya Prayer (Kenya)

Quotes from religions on gratitude

While it would have been great to have the WWW when I was a student, I probably would have got kicked out of school for plagarism. I am grateful that was not a problem. It is too easy to cut-n-paste from other writers that have already made my point in far more eloquent fashion that would defy editing. Plus, I know I was the kind of student that would not simply borrow a sentence at a time, but entire pages en masse —> busted!
Today I do have access to the web and don't have problems with Fair Use of another's web pages. Thanks to the miracle of Google & the web, I have quotes from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and more—all with about 2 minutes worth of research.
I was going to post definitions of gratitude. Surprisingly, such as powerful concept has only one definition per several different dictionaries. Gratitude definitions might be worded differently, but they all mean "a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation". Gratitude seems to be a universal emotion across all cultures, it seems like that would lead to many definitions. Some languages do have happiness synonymous with gratitude, but that is a different definition of happiness from ours, not a different definition of gratitude.
My goal is to blog on gratitude 5x/week. I am incredibly grateful for the internet which translates my writer's block time into Googling (reading) time with the net result of all of us learning a little more about gratitude. How cool is that?

Kevin
January 13, 2011


The following is from http://www.unification.net/ws/theme108.htm (gotta love that Fair Use!)

GRATITUDE

A sense of gratitude and indebtedness to others is an important wellspring of a generous and virtuous life. All people can recognize that they are indebted to their parents, who gave them birth and raised them at considerable sacrifice. But our indebtedness extends much further than that. Fundamentally, we are indebted to God our Creator and the powers of nature that nourish and sustain our life. Then, since the food we eat travels from the soil to our dining table by passing through many hands--that cultivate, harvest, clean, package, transport, sell, and prepare it--we should recognize that we rely on the labors of many people in order to survive.
A sense of gratitude to others is thus acknowledging our interdependent existence; it is an antidote to the illusion of egoism. Such gratitude is recalled and expressed in the prayer of grace or thanks offered before meals. Another dimension of gratitude is directed towards those who are responsible for our education and enlightenment in the way of truth and salvation. Gratitude towards one's teachers, and especially towards the sages and founders of religions who offered their lives to find the truth, is a proper attitude of faith. Most of all, we should be grateful to God, who quietly has been guiding and nurturing each person toward salvation, and without whose grace the world would be plunged in darkness.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Christianity. Colossians 3.17

O you who believe! Eat of the good things that We have provided for you,
and be grateful to God, if it is Him that you worship.
Islam. Qur'an 2.172

God created foods to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe
and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is
to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is
consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Christianity. 1 Timothy 4.3-5


Abraham caused God's name to be mentioned by all the travelers whom he
entertained. For after they had eaten and drunk, and when they arose to
bless Abraham, he said to them, "Is it of mine that you have eaten?
Surely it is of what belongs to God that you have eaten. So praise and
bless Him by whose word the world was created."
Judaism. Talmud, Sota 10b


The unworthy man is ungrateful, forgetful of benefits [done to him]. This
ingratitude, this forgetfulness is congenial to mean people... But the
worthy person is grateful and mindful of benefits done to him. This
gratitude, this mindfulness, is congenial to the best people.
Buddhism. Anguttara Nikaya i.61


One upon whom We bestow kindness
But will not express gratitude,
Is worse than a robber
Who carries away our belongings.
African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)


Be not like those who honor their gods in prosperity and curse them in
adversity. In pleasure or pain, give thanks!
Judaism. Midrash, Mekilta to Exodus 20.20


Even if you cry your heart out, hurt your eyes by constant weeping and
even if you lead the life of an ascetic till the end of the world, all
these untiring efforts of yours will not be able to make compensation for
a tithe of His good will and kindness, for His bounties and munificence
and for His mercy and charity in directing you towards the path of truth
and religion.
Islam (Shiite). Nahjul Balagha, Khutba 57


It is God who has made the night for you, that you may rest therein, and
the day, as that which helps you to see. Verily God is full of grace and
bounty to men, yet most men give no thanks.

It is God who has made for you the earth as a resting place, and the sky
as a canopy, and has given you shape--and made your shapes beautiful--and
has provided for you sustenance of things pure and good; such is God, your
Lord. So glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds!
Islam. Qur'an 40.61, 64


O my Father, Great Elder,
I have no words to thank you,
But with your deep wisdom
I am sure that you can see
How I value your glorious gifts.
O my Father, when I look upon your greatness,
I am confounded with awe.
O Great Elder,
Ruler of all things earthly and heavenly,
I am your warrior,
Ready to act in accordance with your will.
African Traditional Religions. Kikuya Prayer (Kenya)

Emotional Abandonment - not such an issue anymore

I have a friend that I meet for lunch every couple of months.   We have settled on Asian Bistro in Woodinville as our meeting place.  The food is delicious, healthy and $10/plate.  We meet at 1 PM.  The lunch crowd is gone and we have a nice quiet place to talk with great food.  We were going to meet last Tuesday, but I had to help a friend and so we rescheduled for the 18th. 

In a brief spurt of blind faith, I headed for the restaurant without double-checking my email nor by phone.  I got to the restaurant in a triumphant moment of punctuality a few minutes early.  Fortunately, I had my latest Jack Reacher book by Lee Child.  I got a soda and started reading.  It was a nearly sunny winter day outside the large storefront window while I read my book.

Mark drives a late model fancy light-colored SUV.   Everytime I glanced up, there was at one or two more light-colored SUVs driving through the parking lot access road or parking at the curb.  It was amazing!  

While reading and waiting, I reflected back on Mark's last email.  I had the nagging suspicion that while I was thinking 'next Tuesday', he wrote 'the 18th' for our rescheduled lunch date.  I could have gone out to my car and called him from my cell phone, but figured he would either be there or I would get to come back another time.

I ordered Chicken Phad Thai at the cook's suggestion.  It was fresh, light, delicious and spicy.  After I finished lunch, refilled my soda and read some more.  Driving the slower route home past Mark's office located in a big giant warehouse, I decided to stop in and drop off a book on…you guessed it…gratitude!  Inside the office was a empty foyer with some stairs going up to the second floor.  Me & my wheelchair were not going that way.  A man came in from the warehouse.  I told him I was a friend of Mark's and left the book.

It was a beautiful day for a slow drive through the farmland north of Redmond.  The joyride came to an end when I was faced with the conundrum of getting to my doctor's office in Factoria from downtown Redmond.  The phrase you can't get there from here came to mind.  I got back on the freeway and zipped over to her office with only a slight cheat by taking the carpool-only exit that is five minutes faster than the regular exit through a traffic knot.

The two ladies at the check-in desk were helping others and would be a couple of minutes.  I rolled around to the side and checked-in with the check-out girl.  There was another gentleman waiting at the lab.  Typically people get taken first come, first served.  I told the new vampire that the other guy was there before me.  She had my name and so off we went to get my monthly blood test to check the level of my anti-coagulant.  I have to take Coumadin to avoid further blood clots in my left leg and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

Being a regular patient, the lab staff knows that I am willing to let the nursing students and lab tech interns take my blood.  Today's student was a cute tiny demure 40ish Filipina.  She did okay with the blood draw, but forgot to have gauze in-hand to press on the vein when withdrawing the needle.  The regular tech took the blood sample and handed her a piece of gauze.  She taped-up my arm with a couple of strips of tape with a bit of joshing from the nurse that had come to take me back to the consulting room.

Normally, I sit there for a minute or two after giving blood with pressure on the draw-site to keep the blood from leaking out of my vein on the inside of my elbow (we always use the same draw-spot due to it being the best site to get blood).  Today I rolled off after the nurse to get my blood pressure and temperature taken like every other visit to the doctor. 

After the nurse took my vitals, she noticed that I had some blood on my shirt sleeve.   I had not waited the usual minute with pressure on the draw-spot.  There was a raisin-sized blood pool in my elbow.  The nurse got more gauze and an elastic wrap to hold the gauze in place with pressure.

She let me know the doctor would be in shortly and left the room.  Most of the time, my doctor is there in a few minutes with the lab results.   Today she was running a little behind due a rush of patients before the clinic closed early to avoid an impending snow-storm.  The nurse popped back in and let me know it would be a few more minutes.  I had my book, I was good.

My pro-time, which is a unitless measure of coagulation rates, was in the okay range—not too fast and not too slow.

I love my doctor.    After giving her my update on gratitude since my last visit right after I started my gratitude kick, I told her she is a great doctor and a kind lady as she was leaving the room.

I am supposed to come in every month.  I always reschedule for every six weeks.  After getting my next appointment, I came back by the lab room.  I flashed the blood on my shirt sleeve and the two regular techs dug up some hydrogen peroxide to was the blood off before it set in my shirt.  A minute or two of wiping by one tech and the student nurse came in as if she was looking for something.  We got her to take over wiping off the blood and I talked her through what happened and how I got blood on my shirt.  It wasn't her fault that I bled on my shirt, but she was the one that stuck me, so she was the last one to touch me before I bleed a ¼ teaspoon of blood.  I reassured her that it was okay, gave her a hug and was on my way.

In the past, somebody not showing up when expected (whether scheduled or not!)  or less than good care would trigger my abandonment issues causing me to be afraid and act like a cornered rat.  Today I got to read a great book with lunch in the sunshine and then get a hug from a little cutey at the doctor's office.  That is a LOT of progress to be grateful for.

Bonus, it snowed a couple of inches around 7 PM and then was getting washed away by rain in the wee hours of the morning.  I got all the beauty of looking out my window at a winter wonderland without having to actually deal with snow.