Adaptive Appreciation - 11/29/19

In the last month, I have hiked the colorful forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in east Tennessee and climbed up rivers in the lush rainforests of Puerto Rico. I’ve spent precious time with my older sister, Sandy, and with larger groups of old friends and new ones. There were many reasons to complain during both of these trips. The storms and resultant closed trails and roads in Tennessee. The entire city of San Juan without water for almost three days, tight sleeping arrangements, choking humidity, and voracious mosquitos.

Yet no one did.

We laughed and joked about our scenarios and bonded in both the struggle and eventual relief.

In our conversations, it felt as though we all felt a huge wave of gratitude to be wherever we were with whom we were with at the time and outside of our normal environments. We all knew the adventure would come to an end, but not yet. Positivity and humor bred more positivity and humor, a refreshing baseline from the anxiousness and negative relationships of our pasts. As we learned more about each other, where we came from, and where we are going, we all agreed to appreciate the present with mental snapshots, despite whether we had an Instagram photo to prove to the world it happened or not.

Living in Los Angeles for the past decade has made it easy to see the greener grass on the other side. The pretty people, fancy cars, big houses, amazing bars and restaurants.

But spending time outside of the LA bubble has made me grateful to have family and friends that are tough as nails, funny as comedians, and as adventurous as pioneers.

Somehow in traveling to these places, the FOMO of having these material things had vanished. It was replaced with the desire to spend time with friends, spend time in nature (yes, beaches count), cook and eat with good company, explore new places, and gain new perspectives. What you want changes with along your environment. What good is an expensive sports car when there are no roads? What good is a massive house with no friends to fill it?

However, if material things can serve one’s goals, I’m all for it.

While Thanksgiving can be glossed over with the abundance of good food and football, it should also be paired with the practice of gratitude. Not only because it makes us better people, is better for our health, and better for our future, it is also better for those that surround us. Gratitude is the one thing that costs nothing, can change everything and is deployable at all times.

It is literally infinite.

So with Thanksgiving being the observed birthday of American gratitude and the halftime of the holidays, let's think about the little things that make us happy. There are people out there with 10x the wealth, but 10x less freedom. Being pessimistic and optimistic is a choice. The winner is simply the one you feed the most. For those of us struggling, be thankful for without it we would never discover our strength and limits.

Thanks to everyone who has ever opened one of my emails, wrote or told me how FYF has affected you, and those who have shared it with a friend. We are just a few weeks away from 2020 and when I started this blog, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to continue providing content each week. This experiment has gone better than I ever expected and the year has gone by as quickly as it came.

Fuck yeah, it’s (Black) Friday!

The outdoor patio hammock I slept on for over a week and the friends that I had while in Puerto Rico.