This is completely unrelated to today’s set of gratitudes, but the number 30 holds a special place in my heart because of a class in college about The Divine Comedy (see: Dante’s Inferno plus two more books that almost no one’s heard of before). I would occasionally jot down funny things Professor Shutt said in the margins of my notebook and I’m not sure which book this was in reference to, but…
“It happens in Canto 30. I know, you would think it would be Canto 27, but this is three times three times three plus three. Whoa, too intense!”
And so to celebrate Day 3x3x3+3, we’re starting with…
- Pads of paper. They work well with pens, but they don’t look very good sticking out of Baby Groot’s head. (They’re also handy for writing down quotes from your teachers and professors during class.) In today’s case, though, I was grateful to have something for writing gratitudes because I didn’t have my cell phone at work.
- Leaving my cell phone at home. It wasn’t intentional, but in a way, I didn’t mind forgetting to put it back in my pocket after sending someone a text message this morning. It meant there were no distractions: no email, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, games on my phone, etc. That was like a weight off my shoulders that lasted for a large part of the day. However…
- Work email. I couldn’t reply to text messages that people sent me, so being able to send emails was a way to let them know I was still alive. (The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me that without my cell phone, that email account is my only connection to anyone or anything outside the building. Unless I finally snap and run out the front door screaming like my hair was on fire. And if I do actually snap, odds are pretty good that something will be on fire.)
- Clocks. There’s one up on the wall in the break room and I’m really grateful it was there today so that I knew when my break was over. I couldn’t check the clock on my cell phone, soooo… yeah.
- My brain. I was debating what to label this gratitude: my inner monologue, imagination, thoughts… I decided to settle with the overarching “My brain.” The issue was that I didn’t feel a strong urge to take a break today because I didn’t have a cell phone to give me something to do, keep me distracted for 15 minutes or so before going back to work. However, it occurred to me that I could grab a pad of paper, bring it to the break room so I could watch the clock, then start thinking about what my gratitudes should be today. Given how smoothly this went because I could refer to my notes, I think it turned out pretty well.
