Today I am grateful for the support I received during the marathon.  It was a tough day, and even though I didn’t see all the people who supported me, I felt their supprot regardless.  Today, I saw this waiting in my office, written by one of my co-workers who was extremely supportive during the marathon on Sunday.  This is just a physical example of all the support I got from family and friends coming up to the marathon, at the marathon and afterwards checking in on me.  Without the support of my loved ones, I know I wouldn’t have been able to cross the finish line, that’s for sure.

Today I am grateful for excitement.  I’ve been training for the past 4 months to run the Chicago Marathon, and hopefully this weekend it’ll all pay off.  Today I went to the marathon expo, a large showing of all things running related.  There’s always a sense of excitement I feel in the pit of my stomach when I go to such a large event that completely caters to one of my passions and surrounds me with others who feel the same.  There’s a buzz in the air, like we’re all a bunch of kids in our own toy store, but instead we’re a bunch of runners surrounded by all things running.  There’s a camaraderie, an unspoken bond, that helps perpetuate that excitement, and I am incredibly grateful for that.

Today I’m grateful for Lake Michigan.  I’ve always grown up around water, and it wasn’t until I moved far away from it that I realized how much I loved it, needed it near me.  It brings me a sense of calm, peace and reflection.  Every day during the week, I get to ride along Lake Michigan both on my way to work and back.  I purposely seat myself on the bus so that I can face the water and watch as I ride along.  I observe the waves and feel calm inside.  I see the way the sun shines into the water and feel joy.  I’m grateful for being lucky enough to live so close to such an amazing body of water and that I can experience its wonder every day.

Today I am grateful for the diversity that surrounds me.  I live in a generally bland neighborhood in the city (white twenty-somethings), but I can still appreciate the diversity within that group.  I live just a few steps away from a Jewish daycare center and synagogue and, it being the Ten Days of repentence (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), I was able to truly appreciate the Jewish culture even more than usual.  I am grateful for the feeling of celebration that was all around, the feeling of community, the appreciation I feel for something different, the respect I have for a different belief and culture.  I am truly grateful to be able to witness this kind of diversity virtually every day.

Today I am grateful for Ani DiFranco.  I was introduced to her music in my college years and have been forever transformed by her incredible talent.  Not only is she an amazingly talented musician (she was one of my top motivations to learn guitar), but her words touch me (and many others) in a way that is truly personal and impactful.  I am grateful for the motivation she has given me, the strength her words give me to put myself out in the open and speak my mind, the endless days and nights of joy listening to her music, uplifting me when I was down, the fire she ignites in all of us, and for the future generations of girls (and boys) that will be inspired by her example to live the life they are made to live, regardless of what society says is “right”.

Today I am grateful for the company I keep.  I’ve already shown gratitude for certain specific people in my life, but today I’m grateful for my friendships in general.  Tonight, I was able to spend a night of quality, intelligent, lively debate with my friends as we watched the VP Debate.  I’m grateful that I have friends with whom I can share an intelligent discussion about world events and the things affecting our life.  I’m grateful that we don’t always agree on things, but we love and respect each other enough to accept those differences as a part of the entire wonderful person.  As I grow in my political and social awareness, I realize more and more the importance for me to have people in my life that I can share and debate these views with.  I’m grateful and incredibly lucky that I have such friends in my life.

Today I am grateful for all that this delicious little cupcake represents.  I’m grateful for the amazing bakery it came from: an alternative, certified organic bakery that offers tons of vegan deliciousness and just an all-around amazing atmosphere.  I’m also grateful for the fact that they are donating $2 of all their Obama cupcakes back to the Obama campaign.  That’s pretty awesome.  I don’t see a lot of businesses doing this, and with an election this incredibly important, it warms my heart to see some places, places I already frequent, stepping up and inserting themselves into the political arena in their own creative way.   I’m grateful to be around during this amazing moment in history, to witness it, be a part of it, and live it.

Today I am grateful for my friendship with Mel.  Saying that Mel and I are best friends is sort of an understatement.  We’ve been pretty large parts of each others lives since we were in high school.  With that kind of deep friendship sometimes comes rough parts, and we’ve had our share of those.  There has been more than one occassion when I thought that we would never be able to repair the rifts that were created between us, but yet we have pulled through every single time.  I think that’s a true testament to our friendship.  And while I will never be able to explain how grateful I am for the friendship we’ve had in the past, today I am grateful for the friendship we have now.  I am grateful for the way that it’s grown into a more mature, understanding friendship, and yet we can still retain our silliness, our youthfullness.  We are different people than we were when our relationship solidified, and I am grateful that we’ve been able to sustain our friendship through some pretty large life changes.  I’m also grateful for the effort that is put into our friendship, the thoughtfullness that is one of Mel’s most amazing traits still takes me by surprise sometimes.  She’s an amazing person and has done some amazing things in her life, and I am proud and grateful that I’ve gotten to see them in the past and will get to see them in the future.

Today I am grateful for Robb and the love we share.  This is sort of cheating, because I’m grateful for Robb every day.  I’m not going to go into great detail, because that would take up quite a lot of room.  I’m also sure he’ll be coming up on this blog more than once, so I can’t let it all go once.  Today, in particular, I’m grateful for Robb because of his incredible patience and understanding, his flexibility, and his ever-lasting calmness and serenity.  For someone like me, who tends to fly all over the place, Robb exudes a calming presence that constantly helps ground me.

Today I am grateful for my amazing city, Chicago.  I know that a majority of my posts have something to do with this city, but today I’m just generally grateful for all of it.  Today was our annual staff party at work, which consisted of a short cruise on Lake Michigan.  It was a beautiful day to be on the lake, and I made a point to go outside on the deck and enjoy the shining sun, the slight breeze and the familiar yet comforting skyline.  I hope to do some more appreciating of the city in general, as I tend to do in the fall, so I hope to practice more of my gratitude of Chicago in the upcoming weeks.