Gratitude Is My Default Setting #GratitudeCircle

Okay, I am going to try and make this a quick gratitude post-and may or may not succeed.

Thanks to my gratitude journal, I already have a ready list of things I am grateful for-and I'll simply pick some random points to share. Not surprisingly, I have a lot of little things that probably brought more happiness at times, but who am I to say no to happiness of any size?

Onward!

On July 8, this blog turned 15 years old.

Yep, She's a high-schooler, she's a teenager and she brings me so much happiness. I invited some fellow-bloggers to pick a post they liked and I put together an anniversary post featuring those. So grateful to the people who were kind enough to gift me their words.

Filing Taxes

A huge win for me this month is filing my taxes way ahead of the due date. I knew I'd be busy during the last two weeks of this month, what with my son returning to college (Sigh!) and other stuff-so I pulled myself together, sat with my CA and finished that off. Technically, three returns-son's, husband's and mine. So grateful to my CA, who's also my friend for giving me her entire morning to do this.

On the somewhat flip side, I was rather shocked to see that my income this year, compared to last year, had gone down by exactly 50%. But I took a deep breath and told myself " This too shall pass ". I recalled that after my systems crashed in March last year taking all my data, it had become a sort of trend throughout the year. In fact, I got tired of mentioning it in every gratitude post. I have been spending a lot of time offline and not worrying about work. So, no big surprise really. But I am grateful that I didn't have to cut down on my contribution to the welfare homes I support.

Trips

Talking of the offline time, we had a most enjoyable visit to the Zoo. I just love going to the zoo, and I am fortunate my son loves it too. So off we went, with a picnic-ish lunch. And had a great time! This time we didn't skip the safari-and it was awesome. Grateful that for the first time in my life, I sat next to the driver who was an absolute brother from another mother! Fabulous experience. The Zoo now has a giraffe! Later in the day the skies just opened up and we got semi-drenched in the rain, but once that stopped, just got on with having a good time. A great day! Grateful!

Shopping

Busy with getting things ready for son to return to college. Sigh. Grateful, as always for online shopping, especially in rainy weather. And even more grateful for a family friend who has a shop nearby and home-delivers stuff. WhatsApp shopping is fun!

Books, reading, comedy-show binge

And thanks to the lull on the work front, I binged like there was no tomorrow on reading and finished an entire series by an author I love. That's nine books in four weeks. Nights, after dinner, we sat up to marathon-watch our favorite comedy shows. Laughter is great medicine for most things, ya know.

New things

Finally looks like I gotta buy a new phone! My tiny 8-year-old candy bar phone's phone has started to flicker. Sigh. So sad. It fits snugly into the palm of my hand, has no apps, takes good photos and the battery? Much better than today's models. I guess everything has a life-limit. It's screen has begun to flicker gently and it's slowly on its way out. Eight years is a good relationship I think. I recorded my son's first solo stage performance on it. So grateful for its faithful "friendship!"

A new client

I am excited about a new client. The work is exactly what I enjoy doing and leverages my experience in a specific area. What bliss when work is something we love, no? Grateful for this assignment. It means I might occasionally have to go for client meetings, but that's a plus as it takes me to a part of town that's also easy as a rendezvous point to meet close friends. Talk about plus-plus!

Okay, I didn't keep my promise of keeping this short-but it is hard to stop being grateful once you start listing, have you noticed?

Let me sign off this edition of Gratitude by showing off a sweet gesture by Sreesha. I am not even aware when she clicked this pic...and it made me full-on sentimental when she posted a mini-essay with it. Thanks to her for the love.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who joins me in this celebration of Gratitude.

Oops! I apologize for not getting around to reading your posts. But I promise I will. *Intently looking at my laptop* Please forgive me!

Join me for the July 2018 Gratitude Circle blog hop!

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