Pat Bean's blog

Heading this year’s Thanksgiving list is that I’m simply glad to be alive – and doing well. Thanks to modern medicine I survived a heart attack and with the three stents I received, my heart and I still have at least a few more adventures to experience.

While thinking about this annual list, I came across this quote by Jane Goodall, that I’m planning to take to heart for the coming year. “Above all, we must realize that each of us makes a difference with our life. Each of us impacts the world around us every single day. We have a choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place – or not to bother.”

I hope you will join me in “bothering.” Meanwhile, here are the next 99 things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving:

2. All the abundant help I received while recuperating from friends and loved ones, especially a granddaughter and her wife who live next door and a granddaughter who flew in from Florida. They stuck with me even though I was a horrible patient.

3. My canine companion Scamp, who fretted over my absence during my hospital stay and stayed faithfully by my side after I returned home.

4. A new artificial knee, which preceded my heart attack by eight days and which is now working perfectly.

5. My small apartment, with its small tree-shaded yard that is a gathering place for birds and provides me a view of the Santa Catalina mountains.

6. The daily Wordle.

7. Sunrises and sunsets.

8. A hot bath.

9. Flowers, but especially wildflowers.

10. Books and the authors who write them.

11. Nature, and all its wondrous aspects that have kept me sane, or relatively so, down through 12. A comfortable bed.

13. Audible, especially when that comfortable bed is not enough to get me through a restless night.

14. Air conditioning and heating.

15. My doctors.

16. My large family, which includes five children, 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and their partners and spouses.

17. The internet that feeds my curious mind and keeps me informed in an ever-changing world.

18. Libraries and bookstores because virtual is not enough.

19. A refrigerator and pantry that is always full enough.

20. Fun surprises.

21. Trees and plants that make the world a better and healthier place.

22. Soft pajamas and blankets.

23. My Social Security.

24. Colorful 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles.

25. My rollator – and a comfortable chair. Priorities change with age.

26. Comfortable shoes.

27. My Roomba.

28. Reality TV series like Survivor, The Challenge and Amazing Race. They’re my soap operas.

29. Being a writer, which makes me more observant of the world around me, and lets me experience life twice.

30.  Kind people.

31. An honest media and journalists who only want people to know the true facts without taking sides. As a retired journalist, I have to believe this is still possible.

32. The return of wolves to Yellowstone.

33. Caring people.

34. All the national and state parks, animal sanctuaries and refuges that I have visited, and all the others, too.

35. Sunshine on a cool day, shade and a cool breeze on a hot one.

36. Home delivery.

37. A clean apartment, and that I can still mostly make it so.

38. That I still have a zest for life.

39. Sky Island Scenic Byway that winds its way to the top of Mount Lemmon – and all the other backroads and other scenic roads I’ve traveled in my life. I’m especially thankful that there are a lot of them.

40. Tie-Dyed T-shirts that have become part of my identity.

41. Peace, wherever one can find it.

42. Story Circle Network, my writing network and support group.

43. 50 years of personal journals.

44. That I finally became an avid birdwatcher at the age of 60.

45. Chocolate.

46. Reading glasses.

47. Braless days, which is most of them these days.

48. Computer games.

49. My book, Travels with Maggie.

50. My health insurance.

51. The rainbows that follow thunderstorms.

52. The Cooper’s hawk that sometimes sits in my cottonwood tree, even though it dumps on my patio.

53. The coyotes, whose howls I hear almost every night and morning.

54. Good-natured games of Frustration with a granddaughter and her wife  who are as competitive as I am.

55. Van Gogh’s Starry Night – and the real thing.

56.  A good pen and a blank page in a journal.

57. My kind neighbor, who loves my dog and gives him a walk every evening, and all my other kind neighbors as well.

58. Washing machines and dryers.

59.  Enlightening and interesting conversations.

60. Learning something new – every day.

61. That I no longer believe I have to be perfect.

62, The wisdom that comes with having lived for 85 years, which of course includes no longer feeling like I have to be perfect.

63. Good cream-laced coffee to start my day, and the daughter-in-law who sends me coffee in care packages on a regular basis.

64. For never feeling lonely.

65. Smiles and laughter.

66. Snail mail from a friend.

67. Hugs.

68. A good haircut.

69. Helen Reddy singing I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar. This one almost always makes my annual list because I go back to that era when women were fighting for equal rights – which they still seem to need to do.

70. Art.

71. Butterflies.

72. Morning walks with my dog Scamp, especially since there were some days this past year when I couldn’t walk him.

73. Discovery of a new favorite author, especially one who has written a lot of books.

74. Silver linings – and that I still believe in them.

75.  The smell of the Sonoran Desert landscape after a rain, and for its saguaros that drink up the rain for the dry days ahead and bloom once a year.

76.  For my new smart phone, which I’m finally learning to carry around with me when I go to the store or walk my dog.  

77. For the cuddles and sweet doggie kisses my dog Scamp gives me.

78. For my heating pad when my back hurts.

79. For drop-in guests. I actually love them although most people don’t.

80. The New York Times Online – it’s my newspaper of choice these days.

81. Female role models, beginning with my own grandmother and mother.

82. A hot cup of lemon-ginger tea.

83. Zoom meetings with my long-time friend Kim when we can’t get together in person.

84. Weekend pancake breakfasts with my friend Jean.

85. My brother Robert, who is the sole remaining member of my childhood family.

86. Freshly washed sheets.

87. That I can still drive, and have a car to do so.

88. Phone calls from loved ones, near and far away.

89. Scented candles.

90. Moisturizer.

91. Doggie treats, because Scamp is so happy to get one.

92. My 35-year-old rubber tree plant, which has had lots of babies that I have shared.

93. Aspen leaves in the fall.

94.  My 85 years of good memories, and even a few of the bad ones that I have survived and which have turned me into the person I am today.

95.  That I’ve heard the song of the hump-backed whale.

96.  Readers of my writing.

97. The nine years I spent traveling across America in a small RV, in which I lived full time. I found beauty everywhere – and everywhere is my favorite place, well next to sitting on top of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park.  

98. Ice cream.

99. Quiet mornings in which to ponder and think.

100. And finally, that I’ve finally come to appreciate and like myself.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.