Gratitude Monday: Starting the new year

I’ve burnt El Año Viejo, and it's New Year’s Day and Gratitude Monday. Seems big, no?

So here are some gratitude things I’m starting 2024 with.

Two new knees have restored my mobility. I will not be able to run again (because wear-and-tear on the devices, not because I’d be physically incapable of it), but I can and did walk up and down a bazillion stone steps in Dubrovnik last October and did not need one milligram of ibuprofen. 

And I walked between five and seven miles a day through hilly Sarajevo. This would be the first time in more than a decade I’ve taken a trip without popping NSAIDs like Pez. Yippee!

Speaking of the Balkans—despite being laid off in May, after recovering from the second knee replacement in June, I used up my Air France credit by taking a trip to two places I’ve not been before. TBH, I probably don’t have to return to Croatia, but I’m so grateful I went to Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was emotionally overwhelming in a way I’d not expected and it tears at my heart that the country is still carrying the burdens of the Serbian post-Yugoslavia wars of 30 years ago. The rest of the world screwed the pooch on this one and Bosnians are paying the price.

But it was a great source of joy for me to discover that Bosnians love cake, and that I could walk into a cake shop every morning and have a Vienna-level confection for breakfast and not be an outlier.

This was a mixed year for me (as all years are, for everyone, really); I’m grateful for all the friends who helped me through it. Who took me to the hospital and picked me up after surgeries, who drove me to and from physical therapy appointments, who lent me canes and walkers, who brought me food, who just encouraged me.

And I’m grateful for friends who check in with me regularly on the job search—it’s more than finding a job, it’s recovering myself after realizing that my work was just not valued. This is a hard one to take in, and I’m thankful I’m not processing it on my own. I need to get back into the #playingtowin mindset.

I’m grateful that I have financial resources and am not entirely dependent upon the Commonwealth of Virginia’s unemployment insurance payments to make rent. Because the agency is a complete shitshow, and I’ll be having words with my delegate about it.

As always, I take joy in the beauties that Nature presents to me, even in the weird overheated seasons that are climate change. Every single day has something, if you just look. Viz.

And that’s a good way to start the year.