Today’s gratitude prompt has sent me on a bit of a spiral. At first, I started thinking quite negatively, and then I remembered the point was to be grateful.
Today’s prompt, day six of the daily gratitude prompts from The Optimistic Muse:
I’m glad I don’t ever have to do this again
I started to get really literal with it. Like, how do I know that I won’t have to do this again? What if something bad happens? What if something is out of my control?
I asked my husband what his answer would be, and the response was almost instant.
“I’m glad I don’t ever have to date again.”
Brownie points: 1,000,000.
How sweet, and a way to put me in my place instantly. Whoops.
But it did make me pause. How does he know he won’t have to date again? I mean, I sure as heck hope not. I hope we grow old and die together so neither one has to live without the other. But for the short term, that control lies with us right? It’s a good reminder to keep investing time and attention into the relationship.
But, what if something happened to me, and….nope, let’s not go to that morbid thought either.
Back to the topic at hand.
So, after thinking about it far too hard, I got to the point where I have to accept that there’s a chance that sometimes it’s out of my control. Maybe there’s a chance I’ll have to do one of these things again.
But, here’s a list of the immediate things that came to mind:
Sometimes the control lies with me, sometimes it doesn’t. But as of right now, I’m grateful that I don’t have to do these things.
- I’m glad I don’t have to worry about renting. We own our house (with a mortgage), but in this day and age, that’s a pretty privileged place to be.
- Change a dirty nappy. I’ve had some friends just give birth recently, and I’m super excited about it for them, but geezus, I’m grateful that that’s not my life right now. I suppose one day I might become a grandmother…let’s worry about that in the future, shall we?
- I’m also glad I don’t have to date, so thanks for that suggestion, dear husband. I think I’d be clueless on how to meet anyone, or what to say, but most importantly, I’m glad I’ve found my person.
- I’m so, so glad I don’t have to hold my breath when I bend over to tie my shoelaces. Hooray for weight loss (this one remains in my control to prevent this happening again).
But to continue my spiral, I started thinking about all the things I wish I could do again. Go to school. Rediscover my favourite band for the first time. Re-live some of my favourite moments in my life. Hmm.
And yet again, I came up for air, and started thinking about what else has changed.
And finally, I had the light-hearted answers I was looking for.
I’m so glad I never have to:
- Borrow books from the library by filling out a paper card. That was a pain in the butt.
- Wait for dial-up internet to connect or for someone to get off the phone before I can check my emails.
- Rewind a movie that I borrowed from the movie store because some jerk didn’t rewind it before returning it. Ohhhhh, those minutes of waiting were agony.
- Use a paper directory to navigate my way somewhere. God bless GPS.
- Use napster to find music. Ahem, never did that of course.
Once I stopped being so deep, I realised there’s so much to be grateful not to have to do ever again.
What are you grateful to never have to do again?
Eeks. I didn’t even think about this from a “negative” way, but now that you highlight that side of things it sounds SO obvious.
Dial up was. the. worst. I am so impatient and even now if the internet connection is laggy I start to go crazy. And dial up tied up the phone, so I’d be waiting for something to download from Limewire or Napster and then my parents would need to call someone and I’d lose ALL MY PROGRESS!
Definitely do not miss that!
Or when you’d finally get the file downloaded only to find out it was a dodgy file and didn’t have the song at all! The horror!
Don’t mind my negativity – I’m an overthinker. It was a really fun and eye-opening exercise, so thank you!
Oooo use a paper map – I remember driving across the country once (from Michigan to Florida) using just a paper atlas with the route highlighted in yellow highlighter! That was a wild ride, ha. But yeah, I would struggle with this prompt, too!! You did a good job, my friend.
Good old dial-up! I can still hear that whiny noise while it connected. I am glad I never have to answer a phone and not know who it is before I answer, or perm my hair…which was not a requirement, I suppose, but it sure felt like one in the 80s!
The way fashion is going in Australia right now I’m fully waiting for permed hair to make a comeback! But in saying that, not a chance I’m ever going to be doing that again either haha.