A little over a year ago, I wrote up a post that listed a rather random assortment of 50 things — small moments and feelings and notions that exist between life’s bigger happenings. Things that, when considered, turn out to be pretty significant matters in themselves. I love having that list to look back on when I’m stuck in a spell of feeling sorry or sad, or when I could use a reminder that life is so much more than the things I choose to assign weight to.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I decided to model a post after that one. But instead of listing a medley of everyday things, here I’m calling out the 25 things I am most grateful for right now.

1. The general health of the people I love most
2. My own health
3. Family — both by blood and by choice
4. Animals (my dog Pearl specifically, but I’m quite happy all animals exist tbh)
5. Home — both the one in California and the one I’ve made for myself in Tennessee
6. The people who make home, home
7. The roof over my head
8. The bed I sleep in each night
9. The job I have that I worked so hard to obtain
10. The benefits I have access to on account of the job I secured
11. The salary that gives me the freedom to purchase for both need and want
12. A running vehicle and the means to fill up its tank regularly
13. My education
14. My parents for sponsoring said education
15. Access to clean drinking water and nourishing food
16. The means to travel and experience different ways of living and thinking
17. The objective support of my family and friends to pursue life the way I choose to
18. The independence, conviction, and self-love that I have procured
19. The ability to feel a full spectrum of emotions, including sadness and anger
20. Art — in all its wildly inspiring and entertaining forms
21. Weekends
22. Simple luxuries like coffee, cookies, and fuzzy slippers
23. Good, honest people
24. Mother Nature and the vital resources she provides
25. Democracy

M