My gratitude

In my Church's General Conference this weekend, gratitude has been a resounding central theme. This morning our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, spoke again of gratitude, saying "If a lack of gratitude is one of the greatest offenses to the Lord, the expression of Gratitude takes its place as the greatest virtue."

I've seen a lot of blog posts where the author lists 100 things they've done in their life. I thought I'd take a different approach on that theme in the spirit of gratitude, and list 100 things I'm greatful for.

In no particular order...


And no guarantee that I'll make it to 100...

1. My wife
   
   
2. Her wonderful laughter
   
   
3. Her simple, sincere, and honest heart
   
   
4. My family
   
   
5. The wonderful example of my grandparents.
   
   
6. Growing up almost poor, and the lessons I learned from that.
   
   
7. Achieving a college education, and having to pay for it almost all on my own.
   
   
8. Being called to Portugual to serve my mission for the LDS Church
   
   
9. Speaking a second language (Portuguese), and almost a third (Spanish)
   
   
10. My relationship with God.
    
    
11. My understanding of the Gospel of Christ.
    
    
12. Having a home.
    
    
13. Having a few material possessions..
    
    
14. .. But not having too many.
    
    
15. Being able to appreciate what I have by traveling to places where people have nothing.
    
    
16. Being able to travel.
    
    
17. My first amazing year with my wife, and the 5-ish months that I spent with her in Brazil during that time.
    
    
18. My company at the time, Business Objects, letting me take my laptop to Brazil and work remotely so I could be with my wife.
    
    
19. My wife's culture and upbringing.
    
    
20. My sisters, so different as they are, one from another (are we still sure we're all biologically related???)
    
    
21. My parents, and that they're still married. Not because they shouldn't be. Rather because there is so much divorce in the world. Rare to see couples hitting 40 years together like mine did recently.
    
    
22. My cousins, who never cease to impress me.
    
    
23. My friends, having so many from so many walks of life
    
    
24. Having friends more mature and wise than me, who like me anyway and put up with my shinanegans
    
    
25. My ability to easily meet people (I thank my Mom for that one)
    
    
26. Having a Mom who thinks I'm the greatest. Still..
    
    
27. WAKEBOARDING!!
    
    
28. Hang-gliding, even though I don't do it any more.
    
    
29. SCUBA!!!! LOVE IT!!!
    
    
30. For nieces and nephews I wouldn't trade for any others in the world
    
    
31. My friend Agnes, for reminding me each year to celebrate another year of life since our terrible motorcycle accident in '87.
    
    
32. That I survived that terrible accident, and have almost NO negative effects from it.
    
    
33. For living in a free nation
    
    
34. For soldiers willing to die to protect my freedoms
    
    
35. For the lessons I've learned from credit debt, and since then, having gained the wisdom to live within my means
    
    
36. For the scriptures, both the Bible and the Book of Mormon
    
    
37. For my guiding principles
    
    
38. For challenging neighbors like Bill who give me the opportunity to develop patience, and practice forgiveness
    
    
39. For Camila's patience with me!
    
    
40. For blogging
    
    
41. For C-O-M-M-E-N-T-S I receive on my blog!! (hint-hint)
    
    
42. For a job, in the midst of our current economy
    
    
43. For career skillz that keep me employed.
    
    
44. That I had the wisdom to bail out of Business Objects when I did. Read some history on that in these two entries.
    
    
45. That my current job is less than 5 miles from my house.
    
    
46. For discovering the joy of triathlons. (Did I really just use the word "joy" to describe tris??)
    
    
47. For living in an age of whizzy technologies. (Think Napolean Dynamite "I love technology" song)
    

Unfortunately I'm not going to make it to 100. If you've read this far I'm impressed! There are probably 100 things, easily, that I'm thankful for, but these are all I'm coming up with at the moment.