Gratitude is all the rage, these days, so I’ve been giving some thought to what I’m grateful for. In no particular order.

I’m grateful for health, both mental and physical, and for the ability to still think clearly enough to make a living. To have had parents who encouraged and believed in me and taught me I could do anything.

For pizza and pasta. Fabulous filet mignons, cooked medium. For Sideberns. For chocolate, coffee and Weight Watchers giant frozen ice cream bars. For forgiving leggings and stretch denim.

For sweetheart necklines. Lacy lingerie. Flipflops. Sunshine. Fog.

I’m grateful for big beds, clean sheets and cool weather. For nubby white terrycloth spa robes, facials and massages.

For the love of a man who understands the symbolism behind big bling and the ability to deliver on a grown up relationship For failed relationships and wasbands that were ‘not-him” so I’d know his true value.

For honesty, his, mine, theirs, everyone’s.

For wet doggie kisses and games of fetch and chase. Which means I’m grateful that the Dog Whisperer doesn’t have a hidden camera in my house.

I’m grateful for my loving friends old and new, and for the threads that bind us even when the original reason for the connection is gone. For girl parties and girl talk and girlie girl shopping sprees.

I’m grateful for crazy people I’ve known who help me understand sanity

For the ability to cut my losses, finally, and make positive decisions and for the ability to turn on a dime and embrace change.

I am so thankful for vacations in fabulous places with cultures so different from mine. For my heritage and the drama it brings to my life. For my month in Rome and the fact that I had the stones to do it alone.

I’m grateful that I can express myself in words and for the time I can just sit, read and chill. For colors like purple and red and blue and green. For music. I’m grateful that someone invented DooWop and that I wasn’t born too late to enjoy it.

I’m grateful for Big Sur, the Bakery there and Chris, the coffee artisan. For the Pacific Ocean, purple and yellow ice plant in the spring and the Pacific Grove Rec Trail.

For Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Passion perfume, fruit scented candles and big pillows. For colorful shoes and tie dye.

The sounds of crickets, frogs and birds.

That Obama was elected in my lifetime. That I could let go of my resentments that it wasn’t Hillary.

I am so thankful for peace when we have it, and for people who are good to other people without excessive judgment

For the swish of wind through the palm trees in the early Florida spring and for every hurricane season without casualties

I’m grateful for Laura Mercier French Vanilla honey bath and huge bathtubs full of bubbles for playing and laughing.

And oh, I’m so thankful for laughter and for love of all kinds, because it truly can make the world go ‘round if we let it.