Freedom of Gratitude

This Thanksgiving I should have a lot of great things to be thankful for. I said “should” because I have been distracted by too many details to feel the joy. That changed last Sunday when I saw the words “Freedom of Gratitude” projected overhead during the sermon. Yes, “having a sense of gratitude” frees me from those nitty-grittys that bother me, and reminding myself about what I have helps me with a more positive view of the surroundings. Last Thanksgiving, I wrote something about what I was thankful for at that time. This is a perfect time for me to write another one.
Let me start with the notable things in my family. I am very grateful that my family is in good health. Earlier today, I was on the phone with a colleague who was working at home. It turned out that he was at his parent’s house instead of his own house, because his parents are under the weather. At the same time, he was also baby-sitting his own kid who was interrupting him while we were on the phone. That definitely reminded me how lucky that I don’t have to any of that.
Both my wife and I have decent jobs. With the overall economic situation the way it is, many people are facing the tough situation of losing their jobs and their homes. We are very grateful to have both. I often complain about the commute, but a 40-minute commute to work is quite common around the area I live in. Compared with those facing much harder problems, this little commute problem is nothing.
It has been a banner for me at work. My nearly a decade’s work on a software package has been made public and started to help people from different part of the world. This has lead to some recognition for the software. I am very grateful for my boss who has worked hard to keep the work funded through some tough times. I am even more grateful to those creative people who find ingenious ways to use the software to make interesting applications.
It is about time for me to get going so I will stop here. The important thing to remember is “Be Thankful.” It costs nothing, but may do a lot of good.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

What I am thankful for this year

"Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life." While I was trying to find something to listen in a car, I heard this brief statement. Since this is the Thanksgiving holiday, it seems to be the perfect time for me to make such a list. I will start from the things of immediate concern to those with broader consequences.

I am very grateful that I can see the end of the tunnel for the work that seemed to consume endless hours during the last couple of weeks. The work requires a program to handle some searching operations on a toroidal mesh used to simulate magnetic confinement for nuclear fusion (more background information about the project). This program contains some intricate computation involving the coordinates on the torus. It has been causing headache also because I am running against a deadline to present the results at a progress meeting. Well, I saw the end of the tunnel in the afternoon of the Thanksgiving day. As I am writing this piece, my laptop is humming away to crack through the suit of tests to verify the correctness of the program. This thing has prevented me from making any planes for this weekend in advance, now I can at least see the end of it -- what a relief.

Talking about work, I am grateful that I have a job. Ever since graduating from college, I was able to support myself through various jobs, except for a brief period of under-employment during grad school. I still remember the horror I felt. Thank God that I don't have to feel like that today. More importantly, I get to work with decent people, colleagues who care about our work and bosses who care about employees. I am also very happy that this job has brought me a roof over my head, cars to drive us around, and all the strange gadgets that I could not image when I was growing up.

I am grateful for my family. I thank my parents for taking good care of my kids. I used to be ashamed to admit this because it seemed to be not the American thing to do. The fact is that having the grandparents watching the kids is definitely better than having strangers watching them. That is good enough for me! I am very grateful that the kids are doing fine in school. Their school was closed for a few days earlier in the week so the teachers can have one-on-one meetings with the parents. I am very happy to hear both of their teachers saying good things about them. They can be naughty like all kids do sometimes, but they are on the right trajectories, which is what really counts.

I am grateful for the California sun shine. I spent many years in Midwestern states. After I moved to California to this current job, I often complained about not having a white Christmas. Recently, I have learned to enjoy the sun shine and even learned to live with the threat of earthquake. A friend of mine has a relative who works on earthquake prediction, once in a while he give me a sneak peek at the charts measuring the tectonic stresses and share with me the odds of coming earthquakes. Goodness gracious, nothing serious has come yet. I truly thank God for this peaceful year in California.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

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• "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." - Marcus Cicero
  
  
• Here are some writings on the connection between happiness and gratitude:
  
  • It All Starts With Gratitude
    
  • You are happier by being grateful
    
  • Giving thanks year round leads to better health, perspective
    
  
  
• A self-test of gratitude