gratitude – August 2021 – Page 3 – Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

August 5th – Professionally Speaking

August 5, 2021August 5, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

I am off for a dental appointment today. I am not thrilled, but I do not suppose anyone loves such appointments any more than I do. 🥺

I am however infinitely grateful that I have a dentist that I can totally appreciate!

Dr. Bryan and the entire staff that work at 4th Ave. Dental Clinic are amazing. They are professional, competent, capable, considerate, and kind. I have never had a single issue with anyone at this clinic. 💞

To be honest, I am so grateful for all of the core medical professionals in my life right now. Like my dentist, my family doctor is dedicated, thorough, and kind. My optometrist is likewise. All three put their egos aside and actually listen to me – as I am sure they do with all of their clients.

Strangely enough, my former dentist, doctor, and optometrist were the complete opposites of my current ones.

My former dentist was competent enough but it took months to get an appointment (weeks if it was an emergency). Then he acted like he was doing me a favour by seeing me. I am not sure how well his practice would do if he had no clients, but he certainly never showed any appreciation for the ones he had.

It took as long, or longer, to get in to see my former optometrist and he was no more gracious than my former dentist. As an added bonus, he was a complete idiot.

And… My former doctor, who kept patients waiting for hours, who was rude and incompetent, has had his license revoked and has been charged by police for assaulting patients. I think he is still awaiting trial but I am not terribly surprised by the charges.

It is funny that when we go through lack or difficulty in a situation, that we are all the more grateful when we get more or better. It almost makes it worth having gone through the lack or difficulty in the first place. Almost! 😂

Take care, have a great day – and see you tomorrow. 💞

I will forever remain humble because I know I could have less.   I will forever remain grateful because I know I've had less.  - Anonymous

August 4th – Home But Not Alone

August 4, 2021August 4, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

Dan finished another round of shifts this morning. He worked for three days and two nights in a row. As usual, I was left to my own devices.

After Dan left for work yesterday afternoon, I cleaned up from our lunch/supper. I fed Kat. I went down the basement stairs to collect the fettuccine that I had accidentally dumped down the staircase. (It wasn’t cooked 👍). The time passed and finally I settled down in the livingroom for a quiet evening – not quite alone.

It is funny how much we can appreciate the simplest things in life. I am so grateful for my faithful little friend and the opportunity to share my snack with her. It is so much fun, knowing that she appreciates it as much as I do. 😊

Take care and have a great rest of the day! See you tomorrow! 💞

Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
– William Arthur Ward

August 3rd – Accessible & Abundant

August 3, 2021August 3, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

I grew up in small town Saskatchewan. My Mother was a more than capable homemaker and cook, but shopping was limited and there was only so much she could do with a seasonal garden. She made do and she did amazing with what she had to work with.

Shopping nowadays is something that never fails to amaze me. We are so fortunate to live in an abundant country like Canada, at a time when producers, modern science, and adequate distribution methods keep our stores stocked with affordable goods to fill our every need.

If I am ever looking for a reason to feel grateful, it is as easy as looking around our house at the variety of food, pet supplies, cosmetics, and general household products that fill our shelves and cabinets. Naturally, I then feel grateful for my husband who works so hard to provide for us and who actually does the bulk of our shopping. I feel grateful for everyone who works all the way up and down the supply chain. And, I definitely feel grateful for the power who has placed us here in Canada and blessed us with this abundant life. Gratitude is like that! One grateful thought leads to another, and another, and another💞

**I don’t remember ever having fresh mushrooms as a kid and I definitely don’t remember having artichoke hearts. Now they are always in our fridge. 😋**

**Variety is the spice of life – and the oils and the Caesar mixes**. 🥳

**Feeding our furry and feathered friends is as easy and economical as a trip to the Dollar Store.** 🐿️🐦

**Healing Dan’s feet from decades of workboots and cement floors. 🤗**

**Keeping it clean – easy peasy with readily available cleaning** **products** 🗑️🧽🧤

**Dan made a dedicated trip to a hardware store and came home with insect repellent refills to keep my meditation corner bug free and comfortable.** 🦟🕷️🐜

There is no end to the variety of amazing products that are readily available to me – every day! So much to be so grateful for. 😘

I hope you are all having a great day! Take care and I hope to see you tomorrow. 💞

What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.
– Brene’ Brown

(The difference between privilege and entitlement is that one is a blessing and one is a curse. 😉)

August 2nd – Saskatchewan Day

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

**Saskatchewan Legislative Building – Wascana Park, Regina, SK.**

Today is ‘Saskatchewan Day’. It is a stat holiday for those who still work – and get stat holidays. (sorry Dear, not you🥺)

There is so much to be grateful for, for anyone fortunate enough to live in any province in Canada. Saskatchewan has its own special benefits. We have reasonably affordable single family housing, stable employment, short commute times, plus other benefits too numerous to mention.

This year, I am feeling particularly grateful for one of Saskatchewan’s most obvious benefits – our wide open spaces! From virtually any point in Saskatchewan we can see as far as we can see. In northern Saskatchewan we do have solid forests but they are broken up by many vast open lakes. In the heart of our cities, we have a few congested blocks but we can always look up! Mostly, our province is flat, free, and clear.

It seems strange for me to feel so grateful for such a thing as open space. People who ever knew me would find it quite bizarre.

I have never really been a ‘people person’. I find a lot of people to be demanding, overbearing, aggressive, or just a bit annoying. I find crowds of people to be emotionally overwhelming. (I don’t do parades or crowded stadiums well 😳). I have just always been more comfortable in my own space. As life has gone on, I have had to deal with more and more people – my schooling, my children’s schooling, my daughter’s children’s schooling and eventually a more and more demanding career. It got really difficult to avoid people.

I was constantly backing myself into smaller and smaller spaces to squeeze people out. Eventually, I found myself trapped behind my corner desk all day, and stuck in our little house every night. (Our yard was not even a reprieve as we went through a period of seriously sketchy neighbours. 🙄) With this ever shrinking life of mine and multiple respiratory issues, I felt like I was suffocating.

Then, I retired! (And the pandemic happened). I was free to open my mind to meditation, free to venture out into neighbourhood parks, free to enjoy our big beautiful yard. Free to head off on short adventures with Dan when he is off work. Freedom! 🤗

I am finally free to come out of the stifling little spaces that I backed myself into and appreciate the wide open spaces of this beautiful province that we live in. I can never get too much of the open skies, the endless fields, the beautiful lakes and rivers, the long and winding (or relatively straight) roads. We live in a big, beautiful, amazing province! For that, I am truly grateful – on Saskatchewan – and every Day. 🤗

**Saskatchewan – Land of the Living Sky!**

I hope everyone is having a good day and that you have the time to feel grateful for your province, state, or homeland.

Take care and see you tomorrow!💞

“The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see” – Mary Davis

August 1st – Gearing up for Gratitude!

August 1, 2021August 2, 2021 by annemariedemyen, posted in gratitude - August 2021

Of all the themes that I could choose to go with for August, I have decided to go with ‘GRATITUDE’.

I am relatively confident that two of the first words my parents taught me to say were “Thank You!”. It was not that they were looking for personal gratification. They were just very determined to teach us the true values in life. The values that enrich our lives. The values that make the best of times better and the worst of times tolerable. Respect, dignity, kindness, honesty, humility, and of course ‘gratitude’. Values that would make us strong enough to make the most of life, because my parents wanted us to have more than life – they wanted us to have great lives.

It did not take me long to understand that gratitude was more than words. Genuine gratitude was a feeling. A powerful, feel good feeling. I knew how important gratitude was.

That being said, there have been times in my life when I have definitely struggled to ‘feel’ grateful. Times when I was too busy, too tired, too angry, too sad, just too distracted to feel grateful. I knew it was important, I said the right words, but I could not feel them.

During my ungrateful periods, I would try to feel more grateful. I read books on gratitude. I followed the exercises in the books. I once tried to start each day by compiling a list of ten things that I was grateful for.

I am NOT a morning person. I struggle to like my dog first thing in the morning. But, this was important so I was determined to start each day (for a solid month!) by listing ten things that I was grateful for. By day three, I was thinking “Cool, I have ten toes, let’s go with that”.

**Being grateful for my toes – even that** ***wierd*** **long one. WTF! I don’t even have ten normal toes! So not feeling grateful for my toes.** 🥺

Throughout my life, it has definitely been a process, finding the means to be genuinely grateful on a regular basis. I am finally there. Retirement, and a year and a half of Covid, has given me the time and peace in my life to truly live a life of gratitude – even first thing in the morning. 🥳

So, this month, I am committed to writing one blog each day, to share that and those for which I am most grateful. 😁

I hope you will join me often and I hope that every post I share will be worthy of your time.

Have a great day and take care! See you tomorrow!