Can you name 10 things that make you happy and or grateful for the things that people do/have done?

I’ll go first.

1. One of my friends and her husband just texted me to tell me that they have adopted an 8 year old dog into their family. They already have one dog and 2 cats. They love animals and have room in their home and hearts for this extra dog that needed a home. So far the other 3 animals seem to be taking very well to their new companion, as do my friend’s 2 kids.

2. One of the neighbors offered to feed the cat, overnight, where I’m pet sitting for 3 weeks, because I had to go out of town for one night.

3. A motorist stopped to let me cross the road when I was walking at the lake today. There’s no sidewalk on the road leading into the grounds for the lake, so I would have had to walk in the bushes and wait for a line of cars to pass, but the first car stopped and waved me to cross.

4. I had a lovely chat with the cashier at the 99 Cent store about a week ago while she was ringing me up, rather than her just ignoring me, or me just ignoring her.

5. In the same line as the above transaction, the woman that was ahead of me, asked me if I’d like to go ahead of her since I only had a few items. I thanked her and said that I wasn’t in a hurry, so I let her stay where she was, and then she and I had a nice chat about a recipe she was going to make with the stuff in her cart.

6. A nice young man at the coffee kiosk offered to make me a special drink after I found out that he had just ran out of coconut syrup for the latte I wanted. We chatted about his day and mine and he was just very nice.

7. I found out about midnight last night that my friend, in another state, who’s cat had gone missing for two days, got a call about an hour earlier from one of her neighbors saying that they had spotted her cat. The neighbor offered, and then helped my friend coax the cat out of its hiding place in someone’s garage and then helped catch the kitty and bring her back home.

8. I talked to my folks on the phone earlier tonight. They told me that they are helping one of our younger neighbors deal with a long distance medical emergency, first by simply being “surrogate” parents for her, and by offering to take care of her dog and cats if she has to go out of town, and by helping her to research alternatives to help her with this emergency.

9. My best friend just treated me to a play in her town.

10. The guy sitting behind us offered to take a picture of me and my friend together at the play after he saw us fumbling with bad selfies.

11. The guy at the ice rink said I didn’t need to pay admission to come inside and watch the hockey players (and read my book) to get out of the heat.

12. The older gentleman who lives across the street from where I am house sitting always stops by when he sees me outside, to let me know that if I need anything, to please call him. He’s very protective of me, but not intrusive. Last year, he invited me, along with all of his “real” neighbors, to a Christmas party at his house.

13. The clerk at the thrift store where I like to shop gave me a 75% off coupon to use next week, after he saw that my own 25% off coupon had expired yesterday.

Oh yeah, I guess that’s more than 10 Lol : )

1. My parents take good care of me and make sure I have proper education.
2. My school offer free education for anyone who choose pedagory classes.
3. Prople in my place respect traffic rules more than many in my country.
4. My mother’s relatives are kind and responsible people who take good care of each other and everyone around them. There’s no competition or jealousy. They are a nice escape for me from my father’s shitty relatives. Oh yeah, they make good food too.
5. The other day I went to a clothes shop. I had been to that shop before and the owner seemed to remember me. She was annoyed about something and told it all to me. I was surprised that she trusted me and thought I was a good person to confine in.
6. On my birthday I learned that my BFF had saved her money just to buy me the present she knew I wanted the most (I had never told her what it was)
7. One day I talked to a teacher about my concern to practice for the Japanese test. I planned to take the test this December and I wasn’t she if I could make it since I didn’t have much time. She was kind enough to offer to teach me and promised to make sure I take the test in July. The outcome: I’m waiting for the test result at the moment.
8. I had to buy something from a store. When I had finished and left, somehow I forgot to take one of the goods with me. Only when I got back home did I remember and I rushed back to the store. The owner gave me my stuff to me and refused to charge the stuff because: “It’s yours, I can’t charge more.”
9. My father took the time to help a neighbor plant their vegetable garden without asking for anything in return.
10. A collegue of my mother gave some of her expensive vegetables to my family. She also taught us how to raise one ourselves.

1. One of my customers recently gave me their old (but gorgeous and in perfect condition) sofas. They asked for nothing in return and it is the first time I have had furniture of my own that I am proud of my guests seeing.

2. Yesterday myself and a team of my friends (all female) helped to put a fence up for an elderly customer of mine. I was so grateful to those women for stepping up to help as this woman has been ripped off by professionals in the past. We had a great time doing it too.

3. My colleague, Charlotte is incredibly kind and generous. She will often buy the rest of us little gifts or little but important things she knows we need but are struggling to afford.

4. My friend, Doreen, goes out of her way to make life easier for people. Most recently, without being asked she got my dad a parking permit for her place of work (where he also has to work on occasion) so that his parking fees would be halved.

5. Many people had donated raffle prizes for my place of work’s upcoming open day to raise money for rescue dogs.

6. My dad is one of the few people I know who genuinely prefers giving rather than receiving.

7. A few of our customers regularly give up their free time to come and help with the dogs at work.

8. My dad (again!) always gives a bit of money to homeless people. He doesn’t question their honesty or what they might spend it on, he gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.

9. Everyone who rescues animals in one way or another.

10. My hairdresser and nail lady who make me feel pretty. With my job it is hard to feel pretty at times but the confidence boost when I am able to feel pretty is important.

I asked my friend for a mini-goat milking lesson (my Nigerian Dwarf gives birth in a few weeks and I was nervous about milking her because her teats are super tiny) and wanted to pay her for her time, but she wouldn’t accept money. And the short lesson turned into six hours of general goat and sheep education.

My fiancé‘s boss gave him his old truck for half of KBB value and is letting him work off the payment.

1. My friend with breast cancer was given an entirely free wig made of real human hair by the wigmaster of a (famous in our metropolitan area) theater. She had her fitting backstage where the actors would be for makeup. Very cool, totally free (and beautiful) – and all because a friend made a call for her.

2. My father in law gives blood and platelets routinely. (Meaning, every time he’s permitted to – which is every couple of weeks.) He has done this nearly ALL of his adult life. He’s so quiet and humble he doesn’t display any of his “50 Gallons Donated” pins or anything..but he has quietly given of himself this way for decades.

3. My husband, before leaving for a work trip, ironed a large backlog (8 or so items?) of my work clothes for me. He did this while ironing just a few items for his own trip. When I found them (after he left) it was like finding a love note left for me.

4. Two of my running club members stopped their run and walked with me when I was having tummy distress on one of our long runs. I felt horrible that they would skip their training run..but their “leave no man behind” caring attitude amazes me.

5. My new employer sent a gift basket (an expensive, chocolate and gourmet food filled gift basket) welcoming me to the company one week before my start date. Mind.Blown.

6. Our town is home to a where a now-multi-state non-profit called “Feed My Starving Children” was founded. Our family and friends frequently volunteer packing meals or donate funds there – and as of 2014 they’ve exceeded shipping over a billion life saving meals around the world. Cool info at: fmsc.org.

7. Once while running I got lost. EVERY business I approached for water or to use their restroom went out of their way to help me. I go back to those stores (Panera and Caribou in a specific area in town – not close to my house, but close to where I run) and put BIG tips in their tip jars.

8. At the place where I wash my car, the guys there occasionally give me a free “upgrade” to the highest level (hot wax, tire cleaner, etc.) wash just because. They see me often enough and we chat briefly..so sometimes they do that just to be nice.

9. Not so long ago I saw a man who seem impaired drive his (very cool collectible type older-model car) off the edge of a highway on-ramp. I changed directions and went up the ramp a bit to check on him..and while several other cars zoomed by, another woman about my age and a man in a truck behind her stopped behind my parked car (on the on-ramp) to help.

By then I had checked on him and he seemed inebriated or otherwise impaired (but uninjured) and stubbornly insisted he could drive his (sideways, falling down the hill) car out of the ditch. I’m no expert in physics, but I could tell that wasn’t happening. I told him I’d call for help and he got mad.
So, I walked away and dialed 9–1-1. The other woman arrived about then and then she wanted to stay to make sure I was safe. Shortly after the a with a pickup truck showed up, walked down the hill and tried to convince the older man to not start up the car again. So, two other folks stopped and helped keep me safe while I called for help.

10. I volunteer with the Optimist Organization. The neat stuff they do for kids and kids fighting cancer could be an entire ‘nother list of things that make me grateful or happy.

1. Just being there for me. I was reminded of this recently on a trip where I met people I’ve known since I was born but don’t get to see often. Such good people and so pleased to see me. I really felt loved and it was incredibly affirming and special.

2. Allowing me the time and space to do things I want to do. My husband and children are and always have been incredibly generous with their time and support.

3. Educating me. Not only in a formal way, but informally by sharing their understanding and perspectives of the world around them. I particularly remember a teacher that I never met (I was studying externally) but we spoke over the phone. He regularly told me how well I was doing and encouraged me to go on with my studies.

4. Mentoring me. I’m lucky enough to have mentors who take the time out to listen to my ideas, to give me guidance, to point me in the right direction if they feel I’m off-track.

5. Their respect. I have and have had some fabulous people working for me. Their validation and willingness to accept my leadership and to support me in my role is invaluable. I couldn’t do my work without those people.

6. Friendship. I don’t have lots of friends, but I have some people in my life that I know I can go to about anything. Sometimes I get really busy and I’m not the best friend, but I have people in my life who forgive my foibles and are still there for me. I recently caught up with a friend I’ve had since I was at junior school recently. She’s never given up on me, and maintains contact even when I’m not always so generous with my own time.

7. Extended family. Not all of them, but some very key people. I met with one of my dearest Aunts. When she saw me she said with absolute sincere joy, “oh it’s my little one”! She brought tears to my eyes. She demonstrated such unconditional, absolute love and the feeling is definitely mutual. I had that feeling on a number of occasions in the last month. It made me realise how loved I am.

8. Love and companionship. My husband is my best friend. I try to never take him for granted. We just spent a month travelling together and I enjoyed every second of our time together. I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful partner.

9. Wanting to spend time with me. One of my friends took time out of her own trip to travel for a few hours so she could meet me for an afternoon. We had a lot of fun.

10. Humanity. I’ve been reminded over the last month how similar we all are. Yes, there are differences, but we are all so similar in many ways. Parents dealing with cranky, tired children. Teenagers teasing their grandparents (and vice versa) in good humour. Lovers building memories together. People down on their luck. My experience is that if you treat people decently, in most cases you’ll receive the same treatment in return. That belief has been validated repeatedly over the past month.