Today I’m grateful for the movie 50/50.
It really helped to put things in perspective again.
[This is entry 5/365 of Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back]
Today I’m grateful that my 2011 tax returns are already done.
I love Turbo Tax… we got the last piece of paper in the mail less than an hour ago, plugged in the numbers, and both my state and federal returns are done. No more dropping them off at the post office just before midnight on April 15th.
Technology rocks.
[This is entry 4/365 of Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back]
Today I’m grateful for my wife, Tracy Leigh Reed.
’cause she’s awesome. 
[This is entry 3/365 of Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back]
Today I’m grateful for secular Buddhism.
I wasn’t sure how to capitalize that title, but decided that since “secular” is a descriptor, and “Buddhism” is (whether I like it or not) a religion, I probably got it right.
Actually, a “secular application of Buddhist thought”, as it is often described in The Secular Buddhist Podcast, is probably the best description. Secular Buddhism is just a convenient shortening of that.
The main reason I could never accept Buddhism fully is the same reason that I’m an atheist who can’t accept Christianity, or Islam, or Hinduism. They all have seeds of goodness in them, but also have stories and ideas that one must believe… which I cannot believe.
So I suppose I (and others) are doing with Buddhism is somewhat similar to what Thomas Jefferson did with the Bible – cherry picking the parts that I think are true and useful, and discarding those that don’t work for me. (Of course, everyone does that with religion, I suppose I’m just being more open about it.) I’m trying to do it with wisdom, though. Just because something doesn’t agree with me doesn’t mean that it’s not true or helpful. If it stands the test of rationality, it stays. If not, it goes.
[This is entry 2/365 of Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back]
Today I’m grateful for, once again, not quitting.
Missed last nights entry, so now we are into “Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back.”
The thing is, the point of this exercise isn’t really to go 365 days and then stop. It’s to create a habit of being grateful for things, and to share that habit with others who may be interested.
So all that missing days does is extend it into more entries. Which isn’t such a bad thing.
How’s that for a reframe?
[This is entry 1/365 of Operation Gratitude II: The Grateful Strike Back]
