Gratitude and Bird Noise
Dads are gonna Dad. Bird noise, tweet, get it?
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.
It’s Just A Tweet
A tweet I sent out on February 28th got automagically retweeted by a tool I use to keep some semblance of activity going when I am travelling back down into the valley of my mind. There are precious few things I can seem to bring myself to do during those trips into that recession. Tweeting is not one of them.
However, I am in the middle of that valley right now, which is good. That means the downward trajectory has passed. It’s all up from here, until I peak, of course.
But that tweet may have been what gave me the bottom to my valley. Or, perhaps, it’s the first step up out of it.
I have been getting semi-regular free subscriptions to my Substack over the past few weeks.
Generally 1 or so every few days.
I have around 30 or so now.
It's not much, but it motivates the heck out of me that people care to read what I haven't even written yet.
Thank you.
That’s it.
That’s the tweet.
So why is it that the tweet is my first step out of that valley?
Though, truth be told, the wife and I had a fight last night, that was probably my bottom. The first step, more than likely, was when she came up to me afterwards, grabbed my face, and gave me a big smooch.
I love that woman. So much.
But this will be step two!
Well, that tweet shows me how much I have to be grateful about.
What you wonderful people have given me to be grateful about.
How a simple number can be enough to be grateful for. But you’re more than just a number, you wonderful readers.
You are hope. You are interest. You are wonderful. You are human. You are the world.
How could that not be true? What am I writing for if not for you?
Well, my children. Of course. But how difficult would it be knowing I am putting something out that ANYONE can access yet nobody wants to?
The discouragement that must come along with that would be close to impossible to overlook. In fact, I have felt that before. Many times.
But that’s on me. I wasn’t doing what I could to try and get people to LOOK.
I wasn’t putting my heart and soul into what I was doing.
I was doing what I thought would make people interested.
And that’s fine, if you’re good at that. I am not. I am interested in weird shit, yall. Not necessarily obscene or obtuse. Just weird.
I love WORDS. Words like obscene, obtuse, obstruse. I love etymology. I love linguistics. I love theology and psychology. I love kinesiology and I love satire. I love comedy and I love questions.
Those, individually, aren’t too odd. But I love them ALL AT ONCE if possible, though I don’t think I’ve run into that much.
Perhaps once or twice I’ll get some comedy mixed with linguistics when
and have their regular chats. I do enjoy their banter and their ability to ALLOW humor into their SERIOUS and SIGNIFICANTLY IMPORTANT topics they go into.But I am getting off on a tangent.
(Check them out though. I loveLexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios, though I was only going to put "Lexicon Valley". Thank you, Substack. - And check out "The Glenn Show" that Glenn Loury puts out, that's normally where John McWhorter and him join up and talk about relevant subjects. For some reason I cannot link it here.)
Back on topic. Gratitude.
What Saves Me From Myself
Gratitude.
I don’t think I am able to live without it.
Sure, I will remain existing for a time, but I do not count that as living. I struggle at times with the voluntary continuity of my own life. What saves me from myself is my responsibility and what no longer being here would mean for my family and my children.
What brings me out of that struggle, without fail, is gratitude.
This time it is the gratitude I have for my wife and having such a wonderful woman VOLUNTARILY partake in this journey of life with me.
This time it is the gratitude I have for life itself.
This time it’s the gratitude I have for my children. I am thankful for being given the gift, the blessing, of their presence. I am thankful that I am able to BE THEIR FATHER.
How wonderful.
And this time it’s the gratitude I have for you, dear readers, for continuing to humor me in my digital thoughts and musings.
If you remember something I wrote not too long ago, at the beginning of this piece (haha, length of text joke). That tweet said 30 free subs. That was this year, February 28th.
It has been a little over a month and a half.
This community has grown to 158 free subscriptions.
And I have all of you to thank for that.
So, thank you.
I do not express gratitude I don’t feel. It’s odd to me, and I am lucky not to have to. I have much to be thankful for, even in the face of whatever may be trying to bring me down in this world.
So I mean it, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all.
With Humility,
Dad
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