November 3 in Thanktober - Land: Grateful for Friendships Growing Deeper & Wider

This post is an entry for Thanktober, a Blog Celebration of Gratitude hosted by the Vagabond Studios. You may still join the festivities!

Here is my gratitude celebration for November 3, 2012.

I am grateful, so grateful, for the new connections and deepening friendships I have had for the past couple years.

I used to be so lonely here in Bakersfield, I thought there was no one here like me.

Now I feel surrounded by people “like me” and though we are not in the majority by any means, it is so awesome to not feel so darned lonely and just weird all the time. I love seeing how my daughters are so much more free to be themselves and how their friends are proudly who they are in every way.

I remember when I was a teen and was so afraid of being called a nerd or a geek or a “weird kid.” My children take it as a sign of recognition of being smart and creative.

I thought the only way anyone could be was to be athletic or in student government or both or be sought out by “those” people.

I always wonder when people are intimidated by me why the heck they are intimidated by me. I am completely unintimidating! Seriously. One of my now friends said she had been afraid to talk to me… this is a phenomenon I don’t understand.

I was never a cool kid though I would’ve liked to have been one.

Now I am just glad I am exactly how I am doing exactly what I do and have a crew of people who enjoy doing those things alongside me.

Today I did yoga for the first time in forever at a cool spot called The Hub. This yoga is different: it is not fitness center style aerobic style yoga, it was mindful “energy following thought” yoga. I worked my muscles, believe me, and now I have a whole set of tools to practice that don’t include doing downward facing dogs a bajillion times which I can’t do because of my facial surgery.

This is one simple example, but I could go on and on and on and on.

I am grateful to have people like me and people not like me in my circle of friends.

I am grateful to be missed when I don’t show up.

I am grateful people “keep up with what’s going on” with me on facebook.

And I am grateful to be able to laugh when people say inadvertently rude things to me and I am then able to turn it into a part of a performance.

I am grateful for you, reading this.